When are we going to wake up and reform privacy laws?! This cannot be the new norm. Something about this has to be illegal.
Have you heard of our lord and saviour, GDPR?
US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
321–330 of 648 posts
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you feel guilt over creating them?
Should they? The vast quantity of users find it incredibly useful and have no reason to be concerned about governments or third parties being able to determine their geographic location, because governments or third parties don't generally care.
Several recent HN stories have had this kind of comment (first noticed with the Securus submission) that's a weird mix of "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide" and "They will never come for you, you're too unimportant." Is this a sustained campaign or just a way for folks who have contributed to these issues to feel good about themselves?
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not understand. Even if there was a separate OS running in parallel with Android, how could it access the wireless-networks-based and satellite-based location data? I thought that access to these things is controlled by Android. In other words, when I turn off e.g. satellite location data in Android, can IZat (which, according to your post, runs outside of Android) or other similar spyware keep secretly using it…
Oh, sweet summer child ... "Even if there was a separate OS running in parallel with Android, how could it access the wireless-networks-based and satellite-based location data? I thought that access to these things is controlled by Android." There is a separate OS running in parallel with Android and it is running on the very hardware that makes the network connections to the cellular network that you are speaking of…
True++ there are at least 4-5 OSes on Qualcomm with direct access to the Internet:
1. Linux Kernel / Android OS, running on main ARM CPU in "normal mode"
2. QSEE or Trustonic OS, running on main ARM CPU in "trusted execution environment" mode, in parallel with "normal mode"
3. OKL4 / REX Kernel + AMSS OS, running on the baseband CPU (modem)
4. SIM card processor, although it is very limited (typically 32k RAM) and acts only as a MITM for SMS's, not cellular data
5. The OS running on the Wi-Fi card
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#324Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#325I am starting to wonder what all have I consented to? Every week I learn I have consented to this and that because of a news article as I never read those contracts or TOS. I wonder if there will be a way to phrase long contracts into bullet list of ideas for someone simple minded like me in the near future.
You would need 76 work days per year to keep up with reading all of your TOS http://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-t...
And that was 6 years ago. I'd imagine it's quite a bit worse now.
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#326Throwaway account. I work in location / mapping / geo. Some of us have been waiting for this to blow (which it hasn't yet). The public has zero idea how much personal location data is available. It's not just your cell carrier. Your cell phone chip manufacturer, GPS chip manufacturer, phone manufacturer and then pretty much anyone on the installed OS (android crapware) is getting a copy of your location data. Usually…
Wow, thanks sharing. Does it make a difference if I use an Android phone vs the iPhone?
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not in the interest of insurance companies to lower premiums. They only do it if competition is eating them alive. Geico has been raising their margins ever so slightly. I bet they are also the purchasers of ungodly amounts of data for targeting marketing. Insurance companies #1 goal is to make maximum profits for their shareholders without getting caught with their pants down.
Mine go down fairly regularly. I have even been cut a check for adding cars to my insurance.
Are you changing insurance companies regularly? Why would an insurance company have any reason to reduce your rates unless legally required to? Even if they've been overcharging you for years compared to competitors, if you aren't calling them up and threatening to change insurers, why would they ever give you money back?
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't need oral approval or any approval. GEICO is only asking so that their customers won't freak out when GEICO magically knows where they are. The customer service rep probably had the data up on their screen already when they asked.
I wonder if they use this data to price insurance -- they would easily know when their drivers are going over the speed limit (or, if such data is not so precise, if their average speed over 10 minutes exceeded the speed limit).
That was my concern.
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#329Previously discussed yesterday, and again two days before that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17069459 This is one of the reasons I use a public-facing Twilio number, which forwards to a private number which I never hand out. This isn't something that people should have to do to opt-out of tracking like this, but it doesn't seem like there are many other reliable options.
Service Meant to Monitor Inmates’ Calls Could Track You, Too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17046632
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#330Previously discussed yesterday, and again two days before that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17069459 This is one of the reasons I use a public-facing Twilio number, which forwards to a private number which I never hand out. This isn't something that people should have to do to opt-out of tracking like this, but it doesn't seem like there are many other reliable options.
Just a heads up: Twilio now offers a metric fuckton of services geared towards SIM-enabled IoT. You can order SIM cards by the pile and then bind them to a Twilio number by activating it in the UI (or via API). So now instead of (or in addition to) simply forwarding traffic from garbage numbers to your real number, you can get Twilio numbers that are registered on T-Mobile's network via an actual SIM card, making it…
Last time I checked the data price for twilio sim was not good for daily use. Far cheaper to use something like Google Fi and a data only sim.