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Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

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Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#91

Post by eru »

propelol wrote: post #90
TomMarius wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is illegal to not track and save this data in the EU. > If you are using a cellphone, your location is being tracked. Period. You can’t avoid it. Even TOR isn’t gonna help you. It is still possible to buy an anonymous SIM in a few countries.

I don't know if that is true. But the issue here is that the data is being sold to others for other use cases.

You used to be able to be an anonymous SIM in the UK. (No clue whether that's still the case.)

The SIM would still be tracked.

Don't think whatever EU laws allowed the UK to keep some SIMS anonymous have changed since they left?

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#92

Post by eru »

chris_va wrote: post #77
surround wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...such as cell service providers. All of them (in the US, at least) sell your location and browsing data to advertisers. I would happily pay for a provider that doesn’t triangulate my location 24/7, but none exist.

(not defending their practices at all...) They are required to for 911 support. Obviously they are not required to keep the data, and especially not sell it. (Minus maybe a sealed NSA directive, though that is pure speculation on my part)

In the EU they are required to keep some data by law. No clue about the location data, though.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#93

Post by tinus_hn »

surround wrote: post #76

The article assumes that the location data must have been collected because he gave an app permission to access his location. I bet they couldn’t figure out which app it was because it wasn’t an app. Cell service providers can and do track your cellphone location. All they have to do is measure the signal strength of your cellphone at different towers, and they can triangulate its position. https://www.vice.com/en_us…

That kind of triangulation is nowhere near precise enough to reveal the data shown in the article. This is GPS data which the provider does not get.

Remember that many people ‘have nothing to hide’ so they turn on services like Google Latitude. Then later they’re al surprised when their data is sold to the highest bidder.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#94

Post by TomMarius »

eru wrote: post #91
propelol wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if that is true. But the issue here is that the data is being sold to others for other use cases.

You used to be able to be an anonymous SIM in the UK. (No clue whether that's still the case.) The SIM would still be tracked. Don't think whatever EU laws allowed the UK to keep some SIMS anonymous have changed since they left?

The country that still allows it is Czechia. So it's probably not an EU law that requires it.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#95

Post by clort »

jalk wrote: post #89
cornishpixels wrote: post #53

In Soviet Russia, your cell provider sells this data. Wait, no, that's America. I was thinking of America.

Gramma nazi on: you mean Russia or the Russian federation if you want to be precise. The Soviet Union collapsed almost 30 years ago.

"in Soviet Russia" is a meme format

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reversal

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#96

Post by goatinaboat »

aaomidi wrote: post #23
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…

Then allow me to pay if I want to? I don't get this argument when an alternative doesn't exist.

Then allow me to pay if I want to?

If you pay then you signal that you have disposable income and your data becomes even more lucrative to sell. It’s a no-win situation.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#97

Post by geraltofrivia »

TomMarius wrote: post #86
surround wrote: post #76

The article assumes that the location data must have been collected because he gave an app permission to access his location. I bet they couldn’t figure out which app it was because it wasn’t an app. Cell service providers can and do track your cellphone location. All they have to do is measure the signal strength of your cellphone at different towers, and they can triangulate its position. https://www.vice.com/en_us…

It is illegal to not track and save this data in the EU. > If you are using a cellphone, your location is being tracked. Period. You can’t avoid it. Even TOR isn’t gonna help you. It is still possible to buy an anonymous SIM in a few countries.

Even if the SIM's anonymous, as the article demonstrated, it would be easy to de-anonymize it.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#98

Post by eru »

TomMarius wrote: post #94
eru wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You used to be able to be an anonymous SIM in the UK. (No clue whether that's still the case.) The SIM would still be tracked. Don't think whatever EU laws allowed the UK to keep some SIMS anonymous have changed since they left?

The country that still allows it is Czechia. So it's probably not an EU law that requires it.

Thanks!

That figures. They are also pretty liberal on their citizens owning guns.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#99

Post by mikorym »

tinus_hn wrote: post #93
surround wrote: post #76

The article assumes that the location data must have been collected because he gave an app permission to access his location. I bet they couldn’t figure out which app it was because it wasn’t an app. Cell service providers can and do track your cellphone location. All they have to do is measure the signal strength of your cellphone at different towers, and they can triangulate its position. https://www.vice.com/en_us…

That kind of triangulation is nowhere near precise enough to reveal the data shown in the article. This is GPS data which the provider does not get. Remember that many people ‘have nothing to hide’ so they turn on services like Google Latitude. Then later they’re al surprised when their data is sold to the highest bidder.

> That kind of triangulation is nowhere near precise enough to reveal the data shown in the article

You don't have to speculate, the article does state the method:

>> All modern mobile phones have a GPS receiver, which with the help of satellite can track the exact position of the phone with only a few meters distance.

>> The position data NRK acquired consisted of a table with four hundred million map coordinates from mobiles in Norway. A number in the table led us on the trail of Karl Bjarne Bernhardsen.

I think the general observation is that they (government, cell providers, 3rd parties to whom this is sold) have access to most GPS data and all cell tower triangulation data; the latter they have however often it is set up to be recorded.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#100

Post by kovac »

harwoodleon wrote: post #48
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.

Almost everyone, I've spoken to about these (including software engineers), know they are being tracked and they don't care. Actually, you know what, not almost everyone, everyone I've spoken to about this.

I've got the reply "if you don't like it, stay off the internet". Well.

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