Thursday, August 19, 2021
Or you can just leave the damned leash at home
(StudyFinds.org) – Mobile phones give users a reassuring button that tells them they can keep apps and companies from tracking their location. Unfortunately, researchers at the University of Southern California say our phones are revealing this GPS data anyway. To stop it, a team has devised a way to finally separate a phone user’s network connectivity from their personal privacy.
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Would that I could, but my boss wants access 24/7
ReplyDeleteGet a new boss
DeleteFitty
Leave your phone at home ?
ReplyDeleteWirecutter that's so 1980s, Lmfao
JD
I know when I want to ensure privacy, I shut my phone off and put it inside an RF-tight enclosure, and then distance myself from it. (Just because the phone is off doesn't really mean it's off. With the right malware it can still record audio, store it, and then when turned back on, transmit the recordings to whomever installed the malware, and no one would be the wiser.)
ReplyDeleteEven a so-called 'secure' phone cannot be considered secure. It's just a little less vulnerable, but it cannot be considered safe.
Am I being paranoid? Wrong question. The right question is "Am I being paranoid enough?"
I drive a Korean SUV. One day I have just done a little shopping at Aldi, a low budget supermarket. My phone and my daughter are in the car. I spot that there is a Bentley saloon car in the carpark and remark to my daughter that it is interesting that someone who can afford a Bentley would be shopping at Aldi. I then point out that my SUV is a lot more practical but then mention that there is now a Bentley SUV. My phone then starts producing pop up ads for the Bentley SUV. I tend not to get too paranoid about targeted advertising due to the fact that they are always so far off the mark.
ReplyDeleteI've had several similar experiences. My wife is in Honduras. One day at lunch a coworker asked if I planned to go visit her there. ( Hell no) He mentioned vacation spots there. For weeks after, my poop up adds were for vacation spots in the south of Mexico and central hell. Err America.
DeleteAnother time I said to my supervisor that I needed to take a long lunch to drop paperwork at the attorney. After that it was adds for local vermin.
I've seen that too. Or I get a Google 'notification' asking for feedback from my visit to Walmart or one of my favorite restaurants or my local supermarket or concert venue. Of course they are tracking my Android phone even though I have location services shut off (except for E911).
DeleteSo how do they know where I've been? From those 'disabled' location services, of course.
For the paranoid: Don't check the phone, go into your Google Location History on the computer, and see what you have for location history.
DeleteGoogle account -> Manage your account -> Data and Personalization -> Location History -> several settings and options
Beware: Just because there's no history doesn't mean they don't have anything.
I just checked mine. There was no activity, but the map focused on Marshall Islands, which I looked up after watching some WWII movie. Now I'm waiting for vacation promotions. I bet it's a nice place to visit.
Geek
They don't need location history, or GPS to manage that. Your phone only needs to notice the wifi access points nearby, for G to figure out where you are. Think metadata. Works even without a SIM card. G has already mapped all that via other phones with loc history turned on.
DeleteWelcome to 1984, Citizen.
I have to leave my phone at home. It's a 1963 rotary wall phone secured with screws into the kitchen wall.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, bogside. Ohio Guy
DeleteOne of the reasons I use an older model cell phone, is to have the ability to remove the battery when I absolutely, positively, want to make sure it is turned off. The newer phones don't really turn off, but go into a type of hibernation mode.
ReplyDeleteI simply do not have one. No desire nor need one.
ReplyDeletefrom the article: " the user pays the bills, and gets a cryptographically signed token from the provider, WHICH IS ANONYMOUS" (EMPHASIS MINE).
ReplyDeleteBull shit. The token has a number assigned by the provider. If the provider is furnishing the token, they know who the token was furnished to.
There's only one way to ensure that you're not being tracked. Leave the phone at home, which sort of defeats one of the purposes of having a mobile phone, which is in case of emergency.
I have location services turned off AND I power my phone off when I'm out of the house. I NEVER get pop up ads. I also do not use it to as an internet search device or to find directions. If I need directions, I go old school GPS. Paper maps.
One of the puzzling things that I noticed early on is battery level still declines, even with the phone turned off. It doesn't decline as fast, but there is still a noticeable decline of a couple % over 8 or so hours which fits in with other posters observation that in order for the phone to be completely off the battery must be removed.
Nemo
I was talking about safety razor vs multibladed cartridge, with my phone on my desk, now Fakebook feed is filled with razor vendors, but I "Trust" them not to be listening in on my conversations.
ReplyDeleteI am prone to forget mine at my desk or in my car and not notice, but I am the exception, and so prove the rule.
Receiving ads has not been my experience with an Android phone. Now, I don't have any facebook application installed.
ReplyDeleteUninstalled the built in Google Chrome browser, installed Mozilla Firefox from the play store and added the UBlock Origin extension. Firefox is the only browser on my phone.
To keep advertising out of my other applications I installed (sideloaded) f-droid (an alternate android store repository) and from that, DNS66.
Standard disclaimers apply.
This +10 although I swapped Firefox for Duck Duck Go a couple years ago.
DeleteFirst thing I do with a new phone and tablet is to go through all the apps and permissions to reset and delete shit I don't want or use. Remove permissions for apps to change your settings and dismiss automatic updates.
I've never had fb, twatter or anything like that so... I don't get ads, including pop-ups, except the ones I imbedded into the pages.
JD