Don't banks use this data when you create an account nowadays too? I just created a capital one account and they were actually pretty transparent that they'd be checking the location of my phone via carrier.
US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
361–370 of 648 posts
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#362This exploits a vulnerability in the SS7/MAP protocols that power mobile networks worldwide; the cooperation of the carrier isn't even required (even if carriers were against this; bad actors can and will get this data anyway).
[deleted]
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#363Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#364Very much a tangent, but this song is the perfect soundtrack for privacy / tracking articles like these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ttTf8N7Bwg
"The Hymn Of Acxiom"
Somebody hears you. you know that. you know that. Somebody hears you. you know that inside. Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to (say just the right thing and) show that you’re understood. Here you’re known.
Leave your life open. you don’t have. you don’t have. Leave your life open. you don’t have to hide. Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these (mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot. Keep them all.
Let our formulas find your soul. We’ll divine your artesian source (in your mind), Marshal feed and force (our machines will) To design you a perfect love— Or (better still) a perfect lust. O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.
Now we possess you. you’ll own that. you’ll own that. Now we possess you. you’ll own that in time. Now we will build you an endlessly upward world, (reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you’re worth.
Is that wrong? Isn’t this what you want? Amen.
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#365Anyone have a link to jeans with faraday pockets?
[deleted]
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
A while ago I thought of a very neat 'future job': you walk around town with somebody else's phone. So if you 'need to be' somewhere, you just hire this service, deliver your phone, which will be returned to you, and there goes your track record.
That's fairly easily detectable through analysis, though.
Not if you use a clowder of feral cats.
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820? Oh yes, IZat is definitively there, along with other interesting trustzone applets :) It is running under QSEE (Qualcomm) and/or MobiCore (Trustonic) OS, which is separate from your Android OS. It is left untouched by custom ROMs.
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…
You seem flabbergasted so I wanted to directly answer your questions.
> how could it access the wireless-networks-based and satellite-based location data?
The OS is either running on the same hardware as Android or has the same direct hardware connections.
> I thought that access to these things is controlled by Android.
Only for things executing within Android. This is just a fancy UI - Android doesn't actually control the hardware.
> 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 anyway?
Yes.
> I suppose that the location data can be collected by sniffing the low-level communication between the radio device and Android kernel, provided that it has been enabled in Android first.
You shouldn't think of it as between the radio device and Android but rather between the radio device and the CPU. A CPU that another OS can and is running on. Android is not special here.
> But even then, how could this location data be transferred out of the device?
The same way Android sends data out of the device. The OS asks the CPU asks the radio to transmit some data. Bog standard.
> Are these "parallel-running" OSs also able to somehow "tap into" Android's network layer and send the collected data out?
Yeah but like I said its not Android's network layer. Android is a guest on top of the system just like any other OS running.
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#368Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#369Throwaway 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…
I'm in the space as well. I've tried telling my congressmen but they ignore me. I'm waiting for the backlash, especially will all the recent privacy issues. It hasn't happened yet and the problem is so large that I honestly doubt whether the public will ever truly grasp what the scope. The advice I always give when this topic comes up us to be very careful with what you install on your phone. The least expensive mobi…
Can you name and shame the congressmen that ignore you?
Or can you make a tip to one of the newspapers? Given the facebook privacy news saga this might get picked up.
Re: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
if you want to get it to blow up then (based on past experience of what seems to catch regulator/legislator interest) I'd say that someone tracking the locations of a load of politicians for a while, finding things of interest about places they've visited and then publishing on a news outlet would do the job.
Will it blow up, even if the public is aware? When Snowden revealed the extent of NSA activities, it caused a momentary uproar but the people moved on pretty quickly after that. As far as I know (and let me know if I am wrong!!), there was no fallout for the government, and business continues as before. So I am not sure if people will care this time either.
Snowden's revelations arguably were a significant factor in EU privacy law, including GDPR. In the U.S., government has been unable to regulate big business for awhile, about privacy or anything else.