41–50 of 181 posts
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> Location history wasn't ever needed for remembering searches It absolutely was. When I tapped on the search bar, there were no results and it told me to turn on location history.
On iOS, location history absolutely was not required for this. Either its different on android google maps, or you're conflating web and app activity with location history.
That reminded me to check my privacy > location services settings and look for any apps that have "Always" and change them to "While Using" only
I wish there was something similar on Android. I used to keep my Location services off but needed to switch it on for Google Maps and HERE maps so I got lazy and leave it always on. Its shameful that Android 2.3 let you have more control of your phone than Android 8.1.
As a bonus you can be confident those settings will remain the same after updates ;)
Why is selling this data not illegal and harshly prosecuted? You'd expect to find this data being stolen by trojans and sold for bitcoin by anonymous actors on blackhat sites, not by registered companies with offices and employees.
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It hasn't yet been used to expose a congressman? The US lacks GDPR-style general privacy law, but there is a very specific one for video rental records passed specifically as a result of exposure of Robert Bork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act
A more generous interpretation, that does not require buying into the generic, unactionable cynicism that everyone is corrupt, is simply that new laws require neat, easily comprehensible and emotional stories to be enacted. As examples I would cite federal hate crime legislation, enacted after a particularly abhorrent lynching of a gay teenager IIRC. Or the current change of approach to Saudi Arabia’s ruling sadists:…
This is a brilliant, horrifying, piece of phrasing.
My main worry is that these practices allow many people to doxx and subsequently bribe journalists, lawyers, politicians, etc.
This feels like a judicial security hole. I wonder if something like responsible disclosure for software security issues could help, and what the moral issues are with that: doxx the people in charge of the laws, then contact them to say that you will make public how you obtained their personal data in , so they better make sure that the judicial hole is plugged before that time.
iOS now forcing "While Using" option on all apps is the greatest thing ever. Before this, some apps where forcing the "Always" option on users. Uber and Waze come to mind. iOS also gives you a warning from time to time about apps using your location in the background. I think iOS right now has the best location management. --- People are surprised when seeing the Activity section in Google's account details, then fre…
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Android requires apps request location permissions in order to access Wi-Fi IP info.
Aren’t they able to get the ip just by connecting to any server?
It's also very frustrating if you are using the Wi-Fi APIs for legitimate purposes. Having to explain to a user why you need location permissions in order to set up a Wi-Fi peripheral isn't easy.
iOS now forcing "While Using" option on all apps is the greatest thing ever. Before this, some apps where forcing the "Always" option on users. Uber and Waze come to mind. iOS also gives you a warning from time to time about apps using your location in the background. I think iOS right now has the best location management. --- People are surprised when seeing the Activity section in Google's account details, then fre…
The bigger cost is to people's privacy, which is hard to quantify and hard for people to articulate why it's necessary. Collection and use of people's data is opaque and not at all transparent.
Which is why GDPR and other privacy legislation is needed.
What is the correct way to regulate this? The problem is that, from small business to mammoth company, there is no codified, unified, agreed upon manifesto when it comes to handling data at any level. A "Constitution" of sorts that explains the rights and / or wrongs of the data usage of the average user. Somewhere where a user can look at a document, see which company falls where on the spectrum, decide if they are…
Someone should create an app that translates a companies T&C into layman terms with simple stuff like "they track your location", "sell your usage data", etc. Just need a team of lawyers to interpret them, and a nice web site. Call it something like AppSideEffects.com "Things that may be harmful when using these apps/web sites"
Terms Of Service; Didn't Read is very close to what you're looking for. https://tosdr.org