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phones, tracking


saturnian

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https://www.nytimes....ng-privacy.html

https://qz.com/1169760/phone-data/

 

That's just great. I found the settings on my phone:

 

Settings > Location > (three-dot menu in the upper-right corner) > Scanning

 

 

- WiFi Scanning: Improve location for apps and services by scanning Wi-Fi networks even when Wi-Fi is off (this was set to "On").

- Bluetooth scanning: Improve location for system services by scanning for Bluetooth devices even when Bluetooth is off (this was set to "On").

 

So I switched those to "Off."

 

I kinda want to dump the smartphone and go with a flip phone...

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securitybreach

I kinda want to dump the smartphone and go with a flip phone...

 

Well due to how a cellphone works, a non-smartphone wouldn't keep you being tracked and that information is still being sold off like smartphone data is. However, these are the changes that I always make (they are all on by default in Android 9):

 

mIX46uw.jpg

 

I have found the best thing to do is disinformation and hiding in plain sight. In this day and age you are being tracked constantly by all kinds of things from your phone, your computer, your car via cameras, social media apps/accounts, any "smart" device you own, etc. There are many things gathering metrics all around us. Heck if you live in a city, you are being visually tracked everywhere you go. If you look around, you will notice cameras every where.

 

Depending on what you are doing, just keep everything separate in different profiles. Stuff that has to have my real name and details (Amazon, banking, utility, ISP, etc.), I give them one email address. Everything else including social media uses a pseudonym that I created back in the 1990s and even get snail mail in that name. When I am on tor, I use an identity that was created just for tor (including nickname, real name, email, country I live in, personality, etc.). I am not doing anything nefarious but sometimes you do not want to be tracked..

 

I have always figured that They were watching anyway so it's not been much of a transition for me. Yes I know my cellphone tracks me every where but if I wanted to do that wasn't tracked, I would just leave my phone at home. You could D*** near use that as an alibi nowadays.

 

Luckily Android gives you pretty granular control over permissions and what apps can do. When an app asks for location data, android asks me to accept or deny it. I think about what the app does and if it should not be tracking my location, I simply deny it. Most work perfectly well with that blocked, except for ones that need permission.

 

Governments have always been spying but the difference is that nowadays corporations and applications are doing the same thing. It has become such a profitable market, that things will not ever revert and will continue to become more intrusive as time goes on.

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non-smartphone wouldn't keep you being tracked
Yes, GPS would track you, but I think you'd be missing all the data bleeding from the myriad apps that have been shown to send data about you to all and sundry. And the really juicy info--like apps on a smartphone interacting with sensors in grocery stores for example--wouldn't be available from my dumb flip phone.
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non-smartphone wouldn't keep you being tracked
Yes, GPS would track you, but I think you'd be missing all the data bleeding from the myriad apps that have been shown to send data about you to all and sundry. And the really juicy info--like apps on a smartphone interacting with sensors in grocery stores for example--wouldn't be available from my dumb flip phone.

 

I am referring to how cell phones work. They use multiple towers to triangulate your position to provide you with service. If they cannot see you, they cannot provide you with service. https://www.explainthatstuff.com/cellphones.html

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I am referring to how cell phones work. They use multiple towers to triangulate your position to provide you with service. If they cannot see you, they cannot provide you with service. https://www.explaint...cellphones.html

Yep, you need to turn your phone off to avoid that.

I play Ingress so need GPS on for that. Google kindly sends me a detailed summary of everywhere I've been each month. :fish: <_<

I do use aliases on the internet though (and on Google). I did a search for my real name a while back and the only hit was for a production credit on a CD I produced over 20 years ago.

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I am referring to how cell phones work. They use multiple towers to triangulate your position to provide you with service. If they cannot see you, they cannot provide you with service. https://www.explaint...cellphones.html

Yep, you need to turn your phone off to avoid that.

I play Ingress so need GPS on for that. Google kindly sends me a detailed summary of everywhere I've been each month. :fish: <_>

I do use aliases on the internet though (and on Google). I did a search for my real name a while back and the only hit was for a production credit on a CD I produced over 20 years ago.

 

Nice :thumbsup:

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The only reason I carry a cell phone is that my wife insists I need a "fallen and can't get up" solution.

Since the most likely scenario would occur hiking or fishing somewhere without a specific address, the GPS makes sense.

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securitybreach

The only reason I carry a cell phone is that my wife insists I need a "fallen and can't get up" solution.

Since the most likely scenario would occur hiking or fishing somewhere without a specific address, the GPS makes sense.

 

I rarely use my phones for calls and texts anyway, I use them as mobile computers. Most are faster than a lot of people's computers. Like for instance, my OnePlus 7 Pro has a 12 core processor with 10gb ram and 256gb storage.

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My hubby uses my old flip phone from around 2004. I use a smart phone purchased in 2017. Anyone trying to track us would get very bored because 90% of the time, both phones are powered off.

 

Triangulation saved our bacon. Back when we had our first car phone, a heavy bag phone, (sometime in the 1990's) we had a blowout on I-40 somewhere in NC. We had no idea where we were, only the route and state. When I called AAA, they were able to locate us and sent assistance. We followed him back to his shop and bought a tire so we'd have a spare again.

 

My dad bought that bag phone for me. Like Pete's wife, he was concerned for my safety. I did a lot of solo driving between my house and theirs and parts of the trip were on country roads where I'd have to walk to get help. He wanted me to be able to call AAA and stay safely in the car.

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