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New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

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Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#211

Post by throw827474737 »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #209
ramoz wrote: post #27

It's important everyone becomes educated about the fact that virtually every mobile app sells some part of your data that leads to some private company possessing the ability to draw a circle around your house on map and then detect all patterns of life without any PII. I don't think it's fair to pit this as a US gov't surveillance problem. It's true though - the Government missions involved, where this type of data…

> Working close to Government... I've never seen any mission specifically seeking large-scale citizen-based tracking capabilities. They tend to keep those kinds of things pretty secret. We didn't know about all kinds of spying they do on us for even decades after the spying started.

> Working close to Government... I've never seen any mission specifically seeking large-scale citizen-based tracking capabilities.

Further and rarely understood, but it never is about what the government currently does, but what it could do when change occurs.. like the Nazis could exterminate the dutch jews (was it then?) better because they had those registers.. like what if the next Putin/Orban/Trump takes over and wants to take some more steps..

General principle of data economy is one pillar for civil rights! Its abuse by companies right now is an super annoying but comparably small issue.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#212

Post by moonbas3 »

MaxikCZ wrote: post #210
lettergram wrote: post #171

When Google and apple came out during the pandemic and showed the anonymous data on every city… it was pretty obvious they were prepared for that way too quickly. It’s safe to assume, you’re tracked 24/7 and everything’s recorded imo.

> you’re tracked 24/7 and everything’s recorded imo If you have Android, open Google maps, open menu, select "Your Timeline", and scroll through days.

This can be disabled, although who knows if it's just hidden for you.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#213

Post by 5350-uiop-1130 »

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #113
ramoz wrote: post #27

It's important everyone becomes educated about the fact that virtually every mobile app sells some part of your data that leads to some private company possessing the ability to draw a circle around your house on map and then detect all patterns of life without any PII. I don't think it's fair to pit this as a US gov't surveillance problem. It's true though - the Government missions involved, where this type of data…

> virtually every mobile app Reminder to readers to use F-Droid

i think a state level actor would find it much easier to compromise f-droid and its app then the play store.

at least with google play you know they're selling your data so can adjust your behaviour accordingly.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#214

Post by Semaphor »

taneliv wrote: post #207
kornhole wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

F-droid is an app store that carries only FOSS apps that do not have any Google API's. These apps are generally safe. Some may require your location such as maps to function. The difference with most of these mapping apps based on OSM.org is that they do not transmit your location anywhere. You can still install other proprietary location harvesting apps on your phone. If you do so, you are just minimizing the number…

You can make emergency calls without a SIM card. The phone identifies itself to the network (with IMEI), even if there is no SIM. The telcos, obviously, map IMEIs to SIMs. (Perhaps needless to say, but for basic operational purposes they have to quite efficiently triangulate your position, to know which cell tower to instruct your phone to use.) Having no SIM does not help you conceal your phone's location at all, on…

> I don't know if any location data might leak in airplane mode, but I would not be surprised if some did, for example, through NFC or Bluetooth.

Not sure about NFC, but at least BT gets disabled in airplane mode.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#215

Post by whyagain1885 »

ramoz wrote: post #27

It's important everyone becomes educated about the fact that virtually every mobile app sells some part of your data that leads to some private company possessing the ability to draw a circle around your house on map and then detect all patterns of life without any PII. I don't think it's fair to pit this as a US gov't surveillance problem. It's true though - the Government missions involved, where this type of data…

I always get annoyed how these programmers can have a good sleep at night given what they have done. Note that blaming it on the marketing VP is not fair. If even 50 % employees have a thought this tracking can be stopped.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#216

Post by philderbeast »

whyagain1885 wrote: post #215
ramoz wrote: post #27

It's important everyone becomes educated about the fact that virtually every mobile app sells some part of your data that leads to some private company possessing the ability to draw a circle around your house on map and then detect all patterns of life without any PII. I don't think it's fair to pit this as a US gov't surveillance problem. It's true though - the Government missions involved, where this type of data…

I always get annoyed how these programmers can have a good sleep at night given what they have done. Note that blaming it on the marketing VP is not fair. If even 50 % employees have a thought this tracking can be stopped.

the programmers sleep at night because doing this is the only thing that lets them feed there families.

like it or not, there are always people who will see this as the lesser evil because of their personal circumstances don't give them other options.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#219

Post by mkmk3 »

philderbeast wrote: post #216
whyagain1885 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always get annoyed how these programmers can have a good sleep at night given what they have done. Note that blaming it on the marketing VP is not fair. If even 50 % employees have a thought this tracking can be stopped.

the programmers sleep at night because doing this is the only thing that lets them feed there families. like it or not, there are always people who will see this as the lesser evil because of their personal circumstances don't give them other options.

True, as long as there's money in it, but I'd bet the majority of people in adtech aren't in terrible positions, so I don't think that's the root of this. Do people generally care about acting ethically without circumstances forcing them to? Beyond paying lip service. And if you think so, do you think they generally care in the context of surveillance, where most of us haven't had first or second hand experience of any obvious cost?

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#220

Post by kornhole »

taneliv wrote: post #207
kornhole wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

F-droid is an app store that carries only FOSS apps that do not have any Google API's. These apps are generally safe. Some may require your location such as maps to function. The difference with most of these mapping apps based on OSM.org is that they do not transmit your location anywhere. You can still install other proprietary location harvesting apps on your phone. If you do so, you are just minimizing the number…

You can make emergency calls without a SIM card. The phone identifies itself to the network (with IMEI), even if there is no SIM. The telcos, obviously, map IMEIs to SIMs. (Perhaps needless to say, but for basic operational purposes they have to quite efficiently triangulate your position, to know which cell tower to instruct your phone to use.) Having no SIM does not help you conceal your phone's location at all, on…

This depends on what airplane mode means on your phone. With GrapheneOS, airplane mode blocks baseband transmission, but you can optionally still turn on Bluetooth and/or WIFI. If you dial 911, airplane mode is immediately turned off for the call to go through and stays off until you turn it back on.

WIFI triangulation or bluetooth mesh can be used for location tracking in particular areas. MAC address randomization and generic phone ID makes this more difficult, but broadcasts of known devices in WIFI or bluetooth scanning can give you away.

Others may know more than me on this.

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