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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

#291

Post by pmoriarty »

n4r9 wrote: post #241
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 developers may not be aware of the full consequences of what they've been asked to do. I was recently discussing the Uber revelations in an ethical tech group that I run. The most shocking part for me was that at one time the app was designed to behave differently depending on whether the user was categorised as law enforcement based on their usage history. This surely required complicity at all levels, from mana…

I can believe that some employees of these companies are genuinely shocked and surprised that this is being done, but few will refuse to do it, and fewer still will quit.

The sad fact is that our surveillance society was built with the willing cooperation of countless developers for whom money was far more important than the privacy of their users.

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

#292

Post by [deleted] »

specialist wrote: post #87

Every person, living and dead, has been uniquely identified and is tracked in near real time. Source: I read the news, don't suffer from amnesia or willful ignorance. We used Seisent (since bought by LexisNexus) in the mid-aughts. At the time, every person in North America was accounted for, with pretty good coverage of the Caribbean and Central America. The NSA bought a few clusters, then wove in their own datasets…

[deleted]

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

#293

Post by pmoriarty »

29083011397778 wrote: post #290
pmoriarty wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need to start facing the fact that PII just isn't private. It's not necessarily personally identifiable either (considering all the different ways to fake it, make mistakes, the inability to correct mistakes once the information is out there, and the unreliable methods used to verify identity)

Spoken like someone that's never had a partner with impulse control or anger issues. Keeping PII private is, IMO, like freedom of speech or privacy: it may seem trivial and unimportant when you don't need it, but it sure as hell matters to some people, and can keep them safe.

It matters to me a great deal, but I've just come to face the fact that much of what I and the various organizations who collect PII from me consider private is effectively publicly accessible, no matter what lip service to privacy these organizations give.

Our SSN's, names, ages, address, phone numbers, emails, locations, habits, interests, political opinions and affiliations, sexual orientations, medical histories and countless other "private" and identifying information are in countless databases and available to those willing and able to pay for, spy on, or steal them

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

#294

Post by avhon1 »

pretext-1 wrote: post #183
ReactiveJelly wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Are the apps different if I download them from F-Droid? For example if I download Signal, is it different then the Play Store version?

In the case of apps that are available on both f-droid and on the play store, the difference is that the f-droid versions will be compiled without google play services. This can limit functionality (for example, receiving notifications while the phone is asleep), but does increase privacy somewhat.

Significantly, there is very little overlap in the apps available on f-droid and the apps available on the google play store. Most play store apps siphon data, and most f-droid apps don't.

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

#295

Post by pnutjam »

dogleash wrote: post #281
pnutjam wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't fall down that rabbit hole. https://www.unikumnett.no/2019/10/12-reasons-why-no-one-shou...

C'mon, it's just someone with some opinions you don't like, not the bogie man. It's not a rabbit hole to hear out someone you disagree with. Unless you're either afraid 1) they might be right, or 2) the listener doesn't have critical thinking skills. I get that #2 is scary, and it's a legit issue in society, but they shouldn't be listening to you either. Also, there are good tear-downs Peterson's message online, the…

Just a quick link to alert people who may not realize who/what he promotes.

I read all sorts of terrible stuff, and it probably influences me more then I'd like, but it's easy to jump in the middle of something that "seems" reasonable on the Internet.

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

#296

Post by NavinF »

benjymo wrote: post #251
NavinF wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One feature they could provide (but never will) is fake location data for apps that refuse to work without it. I remember way back when CyanogenMod was a thing even they refused to implement this.

AFAIK iOs Apps have to work without additional permissions, otherwise they get rejected.

A lot of apps “need” it. Consider AR games for example

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

#297

Post by Aaronn »

souplesse wrote: post #165
atlas_shrugged wrote: post #50

I wish the apple privacy team would address this, otherwise what good are their privacy claims

Sincere question: what new steps would you recommend they take? The iOS location request prompt uses very clear language while allowing for granular access, and the granted permissions are easily reviewed in Settings. The App Store requires data usage disclosures, which are presented about as succinctly as possible. They could mandate that apps share absolutely no location data with any third party, but that would br…

Any app can get a general sense of your location from your IP address (unless you are using a VPN) since Apple's Private Relay feature only works in Safari and Mail, not in third party apps.

I would love the ability require apps to ask permission to access the internet, or even better, a way to limit connections to specific domains like Little Snitch can do on macOS.

Many apps don't have a legitimate need to access the internet such as a photo editing app or a single player game.

iOS shouldn't ask for internet permission by default but it would be great to have as part of Lockdown Mode or another higher security mode. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/07/apple-expands-commitm...

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

#298

Post by mhh__ »

xnacly wrote: post #201
mhh__ wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that Apple and Google are both tech companies it was probably just a (say) python script to get that kind of thing going. For google especially the data and being able to iterate is how they keep their edge.

Thats a really bad justification, if their edge depends on spying they shouldn’t exist

I'm not justifying but rather indicating that the above comment is misunderstanding the situation

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

#299

Post by ramoz »

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.

Responsibility is still probably more in the product VP realm, but with a few internal "cambridge analytica" shops where the devs/data scientists know exactly what they are doing; however or more jazzed up by their desire to advance in their research domain.

For vast majority of devs, any level, the way data pipes out to different business units from your appliance at a large business is often obscure/unknown. You integrate SDKs and API's that are black boxes, you send data out to warehouses with 30 analytics teams measuring/creating new data products you'll never see.

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

#300

Post by WebbWeaver »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #136
sneak wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not accurate.

All encrypted communications are treated as foreign origin regardless of its true origin. The US government uses this twist of illogic to justify their domestic collection.

Sorry, do you know where I can find information about this?
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