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[–] 199 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Thanks for including the mirror, OP.

Companies that obtain mobile phone location data generally do it in two different ways. The first is through software development kits (SDKs) embedded in ordinary smartphone apps, like games or weather forecasters. These SDKs continuously gather a user’s granular location, transfer that to the data broker, and then sell that data onward or repackage it and sell access to government agencies.

The second is through real-time bidding (RTB). When an advert is about to be served to a mobile phone user, there is a near instantaneous, and invisible, bidding process in which different companies vie to have their advert placed in front of certain demographics. A side-effect is that this demographic data, including mobile phones’ location, can be harvested by surveillance firms. Sometimes spy companies buy ad tech companies out right to insert themselves into this data supply chain. We previously found at least thousands of apps were hijacked to provide location data in this way.

I really despise these practices. I don't know how people can build these tools with a clear conscience.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Jesus fucking Christ. Time to delete the two games I’ve ever downloaded. Dunno if that even helps at this point.

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  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I don’t know how people can build these tools with a clear conscience.

    Have you seen the job market for programmers lately? It feels like it's almost all for AI slop, abusive rentier middleman business models that add no real value, defense war contractors, or all of the above at once.

    That's not to say that it's acceptable for people to work those jobs with a clear conscience; it's to say that for a bunch of people the only ethical options would be to remain unemployed or leave the industry.

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago

    It’s the same for anyone who works for Meta or MS or Google or Anduril or whatever these days: you look at your comp package that’s worth roughly half a million annually, and you say

    They have been paying people to not have morals for quite a while now.

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    [–] 92 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    A proper Linux phone cannot come soon enough

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  • [–] 47 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    As much as I would love to have a Linux phone, it will not fully help with privacy. The devices are logged into a cell tower and have a unique ID. This alone makes them trackable.

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    [–] 64 points 11 months ago (29 children)

    Bro...my weather app is selling my data? 😦

    I just wanted up-to-date travel conditions in a convenient widget. My taxes already pay for the meteorology, why do they need to sell my data too??

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    [–] 58 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    This reminds me of something... What was it... Hmm...

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  • [–] [S] 26 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    And that was before the NSA leaks.

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  • [–] 33 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    And in case it wasn't already clear enough how absurd this all is, the creeps at Palantir are now actually so brazen as to officially call one of their mass surveillance systems "Project Gotham"...brave new world.

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  • [–] 56 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    If the government had a right to that data they wouldn't need to pay for it, they could just subpoena it. But they don't, so instead they're paying middle men to circumvent our rights.

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    [–] 52 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    Trump’s executive order just made anyone who is critical of his administrations criminal conduct a terrorist by royal decree. We all should be armed and prepared to defend ourselves and our families against tyranny. They’re “disappearing” people without accountability. The pedo king literally declared war on citizens for not conforming to his dictatorship. The military was instructed to commit war crimes against American citizens yesterday. ie:raping and pillaging. Am I misreading the situation?

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    [–] 45 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Is it me or are these ice goons getting fatter everyday? Are they eating the immigrants?

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  • [+] 39 points 11 months ago* (6 children)
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    [–] 27 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    So they will know where I have been? Even though I am not American... I remember when the British government demanded that Apple give them that kind of information on all iPhone users all over the world and Apple told them to go fuck themselves.

    This is some real bullshit.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 23 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Because they will never quit. Ever. We need to get lucky and stop them every time (and I feel powerless beyond signing some petition online and maybe making a donation), but they need to get lucky once.

    And I cannot recall a single time that such laws were ever repealed. The patriot act has had some questionable efficacy and now ICE and the Trump administration want so many more additions that there is just no going back.

    Even in Canada, which never had an issue with terrorism, has passed many laws heavily infringing on people's freedoms and are trying to pass the biggest one yet with Bill C-2, even though it actually weakens border protections and gives American companies far, far more ability to surveil Canadians than ever before. This is when violence and terror threats have been greatly diminishing for years (and not because of some BS laws).

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  • [–] 24 points 11 months ago
    [–] 23 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, doing everything they can to make "land of the free" whiter.

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    [–] 23 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Looking forward to joining you guys in the upcoming rebellion.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago

    Ever wondered what it would have been like if the gestapo had real-time awareness of every citizen's location at all times? You're about to find out.

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  • [+] 17 points 11 months ago (6 children)
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    [–] 16 points 11 months ago

    Next we'll be reading how android has removed the ability to disable location

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

    Just need to financially cripple investment into companies like this. Go out of your way to march with your wallet to get impacts into their profitability.

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    [–] 16 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Hmm can't seem to load the archive site so haven't read the whole thing. Anyone know details of how this works? Are we all fucked if we have a phone or is staying off social media and hardening security with something like Graphene OS enough to keep you out of their system?

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago*

    GrapheneOS already runs google play services in a sandbox that doesn't have core access to the device's functionality (you can lie about giving apps storage access or location data, for example), and because you already have alternatives to ad-based services (CoMaps, Thunderbird, etc...) you should be safe from telemetry often hidden inside of popular apps like Google Maps.

    Nothing's bulletproof, of course, but the difference with GrapheneOS is that you can see what's going on, grant permissions selectively to certain apps, or opt out entirely by only installing F-droid apps or using Graphene's FOSS suite. You don't have pre-baked telemetry at all, so nothing for them to harvest.

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