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Beyond GPS: The Hidden Ways Your Phone Tracks You (minddump-5f4.pages.dev)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I wrote a blog post about the hidden ways your location is being tracked without your knowledge.

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[–] 25 points 2 weeks ago

GrapheneOS my beloved

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    [–] 12 points 2 weeks ago

    It's Play Services.

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    [–] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    How much of these described techniques can GrapheneOS prevent?

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    • [–] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    in the same way you mention cell towers being able to triangulate a device, you can also be tracked with WiFi APs if you're connected to or even just searching for a network.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 child)

    Qualcomm has its "IZat" system where:

    - every AP's BSSID your phone sees is sniffed by a program running continuously in the background, mapped to a latitude/longitude if possible (via GPS or any phone location means) and sent to their servers,

    - So that other devices can send a list of AP BSSIDs and signal strengths and get a triangulated location within 5-10 meters.

    So the server ends up with a global database of AP locations, and also the location of every device in the world using the service within ~5-10 meters.

    They've had this in action since 2012.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago

    IZat

    Article about -> https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2023/04/27/are-qualcomm-chips-snooping-on-you-no-not-quite/1100433

    Situation seems muddled. Article claims its opt-in, but who knows, I don't put much trust in claims like that. The idea of a local service to reduce power reqs of a GPS radio seems OK. But this allegedly sends loc data back to Qualcomm, which seems unnecessary. Mfgs like to muddle everything up so features you want, get tied to things you don't.

    Faraday pouches are our friend.

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    • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    What a dumb title GOS does not track it is just a signal that let's you use math to calculate where you are on the earths surface.

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    • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Thanks, really informative article.

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    • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Interesting read. Thanks.

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    • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

    I have a question about methods 1 & 2: do you know if having your phone in wifi calling mode with airplane mode on, prevents that form of tracking?

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    No. The wifi you are connected to, still leak your location data.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    Even if you're using a VPN?

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Yes.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Can you expand on that? That's a really interesting conclusion and I'd be interested in hearing how that would work.

    Personally I use that setup and am quite disappointed to hear that using wifi calling isn't the best idea.

    May I should just have wifi calling off the entire time, but I would appreciate an explanation so I can plan on how to tailor my phone usage next.

    Thanks

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    I’m planning to write a post on this!

    Wi-Fi calling still gives your carrier your IP address and location so they can route the call, so it's not totally private.

    Getting around that usually means running a pretty stripped-down setup (no SIM, full VPN, etc.), which gets pretty inconvenient.

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