Surveillance state.
New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
231–240 of 327 posts
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#232When it came out that government was looking at all of the data on the internet, there was a massive effort to move to https. Everyone got involved. Why can't these same companies and organizations push for phones to be anonymous? Why should a 'phone' be primarily a person tracker that happens to have voice communications built in?
Do correct me if I'm wrong: but the push to HTTPS was mostly for its resistance to MITM attacks from bad-behaving ISPs and public WiFi, no? I really struggle to believe that the most powerful nation-state in the world would not be able to get certificates from certificate authorities overwhelmingly also hosted in the States. And besides, most information relevant to the government is just who's connecting to what, which is necessarily done unencrypted (via DNS or otherwise).
Directly answering your question: because phone companies are natural monopolies, and have strong incentives to prevent any public-access provider that wouldn't need unique identifiers tied to billing information from coming in. Location tracking is a direct consequence of cell towers only having a limited range: and because telcos have no real competitors, there's no way a privacy-centered carrier that sells itself on not doing anything with that data can pop up.
I do wish public access LTE existed in a similar form to free WiFi or municipal broadband. Or even just more municipal broadband.
This article is about individual apps siphoning location data to the US government à la Tim Hortons, though, not phone providers themselves tracking users, although that also does happen.
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#233It'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
And now you are the weird outlier that doesn't have the same data spewing forth instead of Average Joe making Average Data.
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#234It'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.
Exactly this. But I think it's similar to the "Matrix". They're part of the system.
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#235Funny how this is right below:
>FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed that this has been going on for years and Congress has done nothing to date. But ... The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, sponsored by Senators Wyden and Paul, has a hearing tomorrow morning -- and may actually have decent chance to pass Congress this session. If you're in the US, EFF's "Tell Congress: The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale" page has a web form to encourage your representatives to support t…
I’ve just given up on the federal government. It stopped working for common people in any meaningful way a long time ago. State and local, sure, but federal? Why bother.
State is a longshot, depending on where you live and if your interests align with those in power. Being queer in a conservative area isn't going to get you results that keep you safe, and it is worse if your particular brand of queer is being trans. Transfolks aren't getting treated well from some state governments.
Local? There is a serious lack of power that local politicians wield and most won't be able to help you with your issues.
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#237Among the many reasons I choose not to own a cell phone.
Which just means you are tracked differently. You are an Outlier instead of Average Joe making Average Data.
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#238Funny how this is right below: >FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores
Both can simultaneously be true.
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#239I wonder why are we so complacent with these kind of things? Is it really just the fact that we got our bellies full, and live in climate-controlled homes? Or has there been some degeneration of the human body brought upon us with all kinds of new artificial materials we use, that might affect our bodies in ways we can't yet comprehend; or is it a psychological thing based on the results of technological achievements…
"Is it really just the fact that we got our bellies full" Among sociologists and political theorists, this is known as an "embourgeoisement thesis". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embourgeoisement
Today I learned, thanks for a new word. And its opposite: "proletarianization".
Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking
#240When 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.
The specifics around this matter hugely. Neither Google nor Apple sell your location data. Other ad providers will. This matters a lot but is ignored by comments like this.
Lol if you believe them…
Burr regardless, the point was government has it.
It’s also safe to assume 3rd party apps track it and capture the same data. Which can then be purchased.