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Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

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Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#41

Post by meritt »

cocoa19 wrote: post #40
indymike wrote: post #17

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available. Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and…

"Ultimately, free is the culprit. " False... Plenty of companies take your money and still sell your data.

Correct. This "if the product is free, then you're the product!" thinking needs to go away. The reality is numerous companies sell your data today, regardless if you're paying for the service or not.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#43

Post by meritt »

indymike wrote: post #17

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available. Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and…

> Ultimately, free is the culprit.

No, it isn't. Consumer data being sold in a completely unregulated manner is the culprit.

Paying for the product or service has nothing to do with whether or not your data is being sold.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#44

Post by alexfromapex »

indymike wrote: post #17

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available. Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and…

Letting an app use your location and allowing it to sell that data should be mutually exclusive opt-ins in my opinion instead of just one setting

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#45

Post by indymike »

cocoa19 wrote: post #40
indymike wrote: post #17

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available. Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and…

"Ultimately, free is the culprit. " False... Plenty of companies take your money and still sell your data.

It is possible for two things to be true at the same time. You are right, there are paid apps that sell location data to brokers... but the vast majority are free apps that rely on mass monetization of users for their income.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#46

Post by indymike »

jeffbee wrote: post #39
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #6

What I don’t get about this kind of thing is that it’s not just shady data resellers you’ve never heard of. It’s also overt, high profile, branded tech companies like Foursquare and Yelp, with huge amassed data sets of foot traffic, wifi scans, battery status, often paired with demographic info or data that can be joined by ad IDs or commercial device graphs. If these companies are able to keep on truckin’ with massi…

The fact that Apple Maps integrates Yelp is a big red flag for me, and I think a big hole in their privacy story. It's why I am more comfortable using Google Maps than Apple Maps.

Try Google Opinion Rewards and see if you still have that...opinion.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#47

Post by hnick »

cocoa19 wrote: post #40
indymike wrote: post #17

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available. Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and…

"Ultimately, free is the culprit. " False... Plenty of companies take your money and still sell your data.

And I'm not sure I need to say it on here but OSS exists, of course.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#48

Post by harwoodleon »

afpx wrote: post #37

At this point, most people seem to know that their mobile data is being used. And, interestingly enough, they don’t seem to care.

A broad statement. I’d like to see the evidence that they don’t care, especially when faced with the level of detail collected.

I’d say they don’t care to know, not that they don’t care. Ignorance is not a defence, even if it is temporarily a business case.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#49

Post by cosmojg »

pravda wrote: post #19

A question for the Android experts: is it possible to block or spoof location data, through a custom build? Could I have an Android phone running a program that spoofs a long steady drive from Tampa to Butte?

I had the option to spoof location data under "Developer options" in Settings with the original OnePlus ROM, but it's even easier to accomplish now that I'm running LineageOS.

In short, yes.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#50

Post by rmrfstar »

cocoa19 wrote: post #40
indymike wrote: post #17

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available. Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and…

"Ultimately, free is the culprit. " False... Plenty of companies take your money and still sell your data.

Airnb and the cell provides are good examples [1],[2].

The cell provider location data is the most insidious. They add noise to it, but the central limit theorem is a real thing and people who buy the data are aware of that.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/technology/data-privacy-l...

[2] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hu...

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