Google collects Android users’ locations even when location services are disabled.
Many people realize that smartphones track their locations. But what if you actively turn off location services, haven’t used any apps, and haven’t even inserted a carrier SIM card?
Even if you take all of those precautions, phones running Android software gather data about your location and send it back to Google when they’re connected to the internet, a Quartz investigation has revealed.
Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers—even when location services are disabled—and sending that data back to Google. The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to data about individuals’ locations and their movements that go far beyond a reasonable consumer expectation of privacy.
But I won't ditch my electronics. Perhaps the best defense to this type of crapola is to overwhelm them with info, too much to properly analyze.
Why would they want this? Such personal data, ranging from users’ political views to their purchase histories to their locations, are foundational to the business successes of companies like Facebook and Alphabet, built on targeted advertising and personalization and together valued at over $1.2 trillion by investors. This is also why I'm super suspicious of the new iPhone's face recognition app. I simply don't believe that Apple wouldn't have a way to collect that info and sell it if the money were there. If the government wanted to track you, and they subpoenaed the info, what could Apple do, practically speaking, to stop them. Can't fight the Man.
Thus, if your political views, for example, made you a suspicious person to some bureaucrat like Lois Lerner, what's to stop the government from using this kind of data, either from cell phone towers, or face recognition, to know where you go and thus what you are up to?
Related: Even while the FCC was more strictly regulating, a few powerful companies took control of what we see and don't on the Internet.
I'm thinking of bagging my smart phone (or just leaving it home) when I move to AZ. I plan to keep a Globalstar sat phone with me in the rig. I can turn it on when I need to make a call. In most cases the smart phone won't be in a service area anyway. It's not a big brother thing so much as it's a do-not-disturb thing. I presently keep the smart phone for work calls incoming and nav. But no service means no nav.
ReplyDeleteI have a "dumb phone" and plan on keeping it.
ReplyDeleteI leave my phone at home, just like the old days. Anyone can leave a message that I will answer when I get back home. Put the phone in the fridge and nobody can hear you, if that is important to you
ReplyDelete