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Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

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Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#261

Post by KozmoNau7 »

lemagedurage wrote: post #120
IBM wrote: post #63

It's amazing to me how many comments here excuse Google's behavior by offering the impractical "solution" of just not using a smartphone (a false dilemma) when the obvious answer is to get an iPhone. That's the advice of pretty much everyone in the infosec field and I'm sure some of them will attest to that in this thread.

Apple provides a black box with iOS, they have full control. Maybe the next iOS update comes with privacy intrusion because it's more lucrative. A more sensible way of dealing wirh the issue would be to use an open source Android version like AOSP or LineageOS, not run proprietary gapps, and replace its functionality with F-Droid, MicroG and Yalp-store. Your location will stay out of Apple's/Google's hands and you ca…

Using F-Droid and Yalp and avoiding the Google Play Store is only an option if your needs are very limited. As far as I know, there are no widely-adopted mobile payment apps anywhere else, certainly the de facto standard mobile payment app in my country is only available on the official app stores.

The same goes for banking apps and all official store membership and coupon apps, just to mention a few categories of apps you will have to do without.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#262

Post by blub »

virgilp wrote: post #259
blub wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is temporary and the best smartphone choice for privacy (or rather best compromise) is subject to change. Android freedom is purely theoretical for most people, including my family and friends. iOS security and privacy support is real and practical. P.S: Apple is not screwing developers, they're keeping them under control. Time and time again developers have proven they don't care about security or privacy…

> Apple is not screwing developers, they're keeping them under control Their entire business model is predicated on the idea that hardware is important/ worthy, and that software should be $0.99 with free updates forever. It's basically the opposite of Microsoft - what MS did to the OEMs, Apple does to the indie devs. Also: not sure about your family, but I can choose stuff like "what keyboard to use". For me, that's…

Most apps are worth 0.99, even if they cost significantly more to develop. When one considers the ads, tracking, changing features from under the customer, that's their value.

The stuff that's really good costs money also on iOS. The Abby OCR is 64 EUR, OmniFocus is about 44 EUR, Korg Gadget cost 45 EUR (now 20, maybe a special offer).

What keyboard to use is a freedom, but not really an important one. It's a convenience.

I recently bought an iPad for my parents and that allows them to have a device which is very unlikely to get infected by spyware or malware and I can count on their private information remaining private. That gives them the freedom to use it as they like and see fot, without having to worry. And without me having to keep up with whatever tracking fuckery Google thought up.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#263

Post by Brakenshire »

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #119
Brakenshire wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sophistry in the sense that according to any reasonable idea of privacy, meeting someone in public, so that they know where you are, your name and your face, is distinctly different from a private company knowing exactly where you are at all moments. Imagine if it came out that a company had hired private investigators to follow you around, and collected a list of every location you visited. You tell someone else, an…

> a private company knowing exactly where you are at all moments Someone else commented that this has already been the case for ... at least a decade, for basically everyone (in the U.S.) – the cell phone carriers are those private companies. And there is substantial evidence that they're even less trustworthy than Google.

Telecommunications companies are utilities whose use of this data is highly regulated. Google not only has locaton, it has contacts, browsing history, calendar, gmail, etc, and it has the legal right to combine this information together.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#264

Post by kerberos84 »

whyagaindavid wrote: post #233
dmd wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you try googling "delete apple id"? It's pretty straightforward. Given that, what point are you trying to make?

There is a way to delete your data from Google or ms. Not Apple. BTW, there is no way to delete apple Id. Seriously try doing it. You cannot.

you actually don't believe that they delete your data, do you?

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#265

Post by KozmoNau7 »

iaml wrote: post #55
imiric wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can Android or other mobile OS users do to protect their privacy? Is there a mobile OS that genuinely takes privacy seriously, yet is easy to install and use?

My guess is flashing LineageOS + microG + yalp store is closest you can get.

Only if you're not bothered by the fact that you'll be giving up on the vast majority of apps that most people use.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#266

Post by kerberos84 »

halflings wrote: post #244
QAPereo wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, but at least they’re not aggregating and selling it.

Who said they are using or selling it? This is literally from the article: > “In January of this year, we began looking into using Cell ID codes as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery,” the Google spokesperson said in an email. “However, we never incorporated Cell ID into our network sync system, so that data was immediately discarded, and we updated it to no longer r…

Ah, of course we should believe the google spokesperson.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#268

Post by virgilp »

blub wrote: post #262
virgilp wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is not screwing developers, they're keeping them under control Their entire business model is predicated on the idea that hardware is important/ worthy, and that software should be $0.99 with free updates forever. It's basically the opposite of Microsoft - what MS did to the OEMs, Apple does to the indie devs. Also: not sure about your family, but I can choose stuff like "what keyboard to use". For me, that's…

Most apps are worth 0.99, even if they cost significantly more to develop. When one considers the ads, tracking, changing features from under the customer, that's their value. The stuff that's really good costs money also on iOS. The Abby OCR is 64 EUR, OmniFocus is about 44 EUR, Korg Gadget cost 45 EUR (now 20, maybe a special offer). What keyboard to use is a freedom, but not really an important one. It's a conveni…

You're a delighted Apple customer - I get it, it's your right.

It's also my right to question your view that "security is freedom, freedom is insecurity and danger" (ok, I'm mean/ probably misrepresenting the second part. But not the first one - and that alone should give you a bit of pause)

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#269

Post by kerberos84 »

akoncius wrote: post #105
tryingagainbro wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only governments can tame this beast now, way too big and too rich for any startup. I noticed several chrome instances running on "Task manager" almost all the time. Used Chrome maybe months ago. So I uninstalled. Who knows what they were doing, collecting. I trust them as much as I (would) trust a hustler on the old 42nd street

yeah. I decided to avoid chrome at all costs when noticed that when you install chrome and have firefox already installed , chrome automatically without user’s acknowledgement installs some mysterious google plugin which does not sure what. To verify it , I reproduced same scenario again and plugin was installed again. After that I uninstalled chrome and avoid google products as much as possible.

Chrome does not allow you even to turn off auto-updates. Why? Because then they can't use their new tracking and advertising techniques on you.

Re: Google collects cell tower info even if location services are disabled

#270

Post by zaarn »

IBM wrote: post #63

It's amazing to me how many comments here excuse Google's behavior by offering the impractical "solution" of just not using a smartphone (a false dilemma) when the obvious answer is to get an iPhone. That's the advice of pretty much everyone in the infosec field and I'm sure some of them will attest to that in this thread.

I don't think Apple is viable for a lot of users.

For one it's more expensive, I have to pay a hefty price to get a recent Iphone, compared to being able to get a usuable android phone starting at 100€ or less.

Additionally, I'm a primarly linux user and from what I've gathered, Linux is not supported by Apple at all, rather, you have to buy into the Apple ecosystem to properly use an iphone.

Which is the third point; to use an iPhone I need to become part of the Apple ecosystem while most Android phones interop with any OS and Hardware relatively straightforward most of the time.

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