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CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

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Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#91

Post by some_furry »

andai wrote: post #89
Cider9986 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure that ad blocking is enough now or in the future as fingerprinting is extremely hard to fight while keeping a convenient web experience. Of course, continue blocking for convenience, but for privacy, more robust solutions are needed. Try to beat this: https://fingerprint.com

Doesn't this just identify you as "that one guy who blocks fingerprinting"? It's similar to when you use Linux or an obscure privacy-preserving browser. You've made yourself way more unique just by doing that. (I'm not sure how the math works out though, vs. actually running all that nasty tracking stuff.)

There are dozens of us!

But, yeah, anti-fingerprinting is still a useful signal if less people do it. So more people should do it; especially if they're less likely to be targeted.

"More haystack" makes their job harder.

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#92

Post by LPisGood »

Cider9986 wrote: post #87
Zak wrote: post #66

I have never regretted my decision to aggressively block ads on every device I use, and to shun devices where I can't.

I am not sure that ad blocking is enough now or in the future as fingerprinting is extremely hard to fight while keeping a convenient web experience. Of course, continue blocking for convenience, but for privacy, more robust solutions are needed. Try to beat this: https://fingerprint.com

iPhone with private relay seems to defeat that

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#93

Post by kube-system »

legitster wrote: post #64
golem14 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your is statement is inaccurate to the point of being intentionally misleading: Many devices, when running, and in some cases even if turned off but connected to their battery, will ping cell towers (maybe even BLE/Wifi) and get triangulated by the network infrastructure (such as cell towers) without actively broadcasting the GPS location. That's why I don't quite understand why the gubernment needs to have f…

Cell-site location information (CSLI) is not available to apps or adware and is protected by the Fourth Amendment.

It was freely sold up until a handful of years ago

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#94

Post by tempaccount5050 »

jonas21 wrote: post #43
golem14 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your is statement is inaccurate to the point of being intentionally misleading: Many devices, when running, and in some cases even if turned off but connected to their battery, will ping cell towers (maybe even BLE/Wifi) and get triangulated by the network infrastructure (such as cell towers) without actively broadcasting the GPS location. That's why I don't quite understand why the gubernment needs to have f…

That location information is not available to apps or ad networks without user consent. The government can access it from the carrier with a warrant, but that's not what we're discussing here.

Couldn't you just maintain a list of cell tower IPs and figure it out with traceroute?

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#95

Post by [deleted] »

andai wrote: post #89
Cider9986 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure that ad blocking is enough now or in the future as fingerprinting is extremely hard to fight while keeping a convenient web experience. Of course, continue blocking for convenience, but for privacy, more robust solutions are needed. Try to beat this: https://fingerprint.com

Doesn't this just identify you as "that one guy who blocks fingerprinting"? It's similar to when you use Linux or an obscure privacy-preserving browser. You've made yourself way more unique just by doing that. (I'm not sure how the math works out though, vs. actually running all that nasty tracking stuff.)

[deleted]

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#96

Post by drdaeman »

keybored wrote: post #49
h4kunamata wrote: post #47

>For years, the internet advertising industry has been sucking up our data, including our location data For years, people have been sharing everything they do, what they do, people they spent time with, where they live. Advertisement industry just adds more info to complete your profile, what you buy, what you watch, what you speak online, etc.

People here complain that programmers aren’t engineers because real engineers can accidentally kill people and get sued if they mess an equation up. Instead of just breaking a build or something. I think it’s more concerning that programmers seem to have no care or shame about designing systems that works against the users’ interests. Did you share something intimate in our chat? Well it’s not E2E, moron, we have tha…

I’m afraid you don’t understand humans. Yeah, if you completely strip every detail you get a picture like that, a very convenient one to blow all the righteous steam on some amorphous homogeneous “programmers” mass. World is not simple, it’s the opposite of that.

When a poor lad comes on a work visa and is elevated from a literal poverty to a somewhat decent standard of living, would you expect them to stand up and make sure some camera recordings can’t be used in a way they aren’t supposed to be used? Do you expect them to even consider if their management may abuse that some years in the future (when the code is an unholy mess of duct tape and all the effort goes into making it work for the stated purpose), when their mind is all busy thinking about bills, health, family abroad, and the general sense of doom impending with pandemics and wars and extreme corruption all around? Nah, that lad’s also being exploited here, not exploiting others. Not that any sins are absolved but he’s a lot less of a monster than your comment paints. And there are corporations with tens of thousands of such lads and lasses and other folks. And that’s just one of myriad of possible nuances that break the trope of evil programmers screwing the world up.

Blame the rot that starts at the head, it’d be at least a bit more accurate.

> I can’t think of another profession

That’s because you framed the criteria so narrowly that it includes almost only programmers. And even then you still confused between management and implementors. And even then you’re forgetting the management, who’s definitely more to blame than workers.

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#97

Post by kube-system »

giantg2 wrote: post #20
iamnothere wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phreeli seems to be the privacy promoting MVNO with the cheapest options. Not sure if it’s been audited or what its guarantees are, but anything is probably better than the big carriers.

Thanks! This looks like what I want

Cape is another option, supposedly a more complete tech stack of their own

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#98

Post by d4mi3n »

ducttape12 wrote: post #19
legitster wrote: post #16

I work with Ad Data a lot in my job, and there's a lot of misconceptions about what this data that journalists love to propogate: The location data in these networks is very inaccurate. Your OS and browser actually do a pretty good job of locking down your location data unless you give explicit permission. It's in the ad network's interests to lie about the quality of their data - so a lot of the "location" data is g…

Neither the government nor an ad agency needs to know where I am, no matter how "rough" the data is. It's none of their business.

Well, in the case of a company trying to market to you, it literally _is_ their business. It makes them money.

The problem is that we have markets where we: - Incentivize organizations to pursue profits at the expense of everything else, which includes social good and civic rights - Rarely hold bad actors accountable (and almost never in a timely manner)

Which means, given enough time, we're always going to trend to whatever makes the most money. Targeted advertising makes money, and will continue to do so unless or until we collectively decide to make it a greater risk to profits than it is today.

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#99

Post by kube-system »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #26
kirth_gersen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most have internal batteries and are still "on" to a certain extent unless the battery is completely discharged.

If you cover your phone with an antielectrostatic bag it can't communicate; that is a Faraday cage. Since people around you will think you are also wearing a tinfoil hard, you had better stick to the phones with hardware switches as sibling comment mentions

Most of those bags are total BS

Re: CBP tapped into the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ movements

#100

Post by Zak »

Cider9986 wrote: post #87
Zak wrote: post #66

I have never regretted my decision to aggressively block ads on every device I use, and to shun devices where I can't.

I am not sure that ad blocking is enough now or in the future as fingerprinting is extremely hard to fight while keeping a convenient web experience. Of course, continue blocking for convenience, but for privacy, more robust solutions are needed. Try to beat this: https://fingerprint.com

I beat it with Firefox, UBO, standard Firefox advanced tracking protection, and a VPN.

It was able to track me as long as my IP address didn't change, but as soon as I switched VPN endpoints, it gave me a new identifier.

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