We were promised a technological future with ways to search for things of interest, find out how to get to places on a map, etc. Instead the government can now track us in our daily lives anywhere and everywhere we go 24/7. That would be great in a world where the government is of the people, by the people and for the people. However in reality they want to find us and send us to el Salvador. WTF!
Until things change, I am not buying a single electronic device. Not an iPad or a TV or an empty-tree player. This is ridiculous. And now we can’t even know anything because all news is coming from the Murdocks and they just killed off NPR and PBS. This is how the bad part of the story starts.
See you all in a fire pit somewhere!
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mutterring under breath: grapheneos
[Your smartphone knows when] the phone is charging
Out of all the things that someone tried to scare me into worrying about that must be one of the most ridiculous.
Sooooo. This is actually scarier than it may seem…
You can tell what outlet or building a phone is plugged into sometimes by micro aberrations in power output.
Also interestingly you can kind of tell what webpages somebody visits by their phone’s power usage:
edit: for stuff like this they kind of need existing power profiles to like compare against, so this is sometimes used to tell if you’re “at home” by identifying the charging profile of the charging apparatus you use at night etc.
The GPS, cell tower, and wifi info wouldn’t give that away first?
It would! This is just an extra layer of data they can use to identify and infer!
Wait if that’s the most ridiculous part, then… Does the smartphone even know when it’s switched on or off?
Absolutely. Power log will be uploaded immediately upon power up.
Out of all that, the one that really bothers me is one they didn’t even list: it knows all of your friends and associates. They have your location data. They have the location data of everyone around you. If you and several other people are in the same location frequently, you’ll start seeing Facebook and other apps suggest them as friends.
Fifteen years ago, I was among a community of people who primarily used aliases within the community to isolate their personal lives and identities from their community identity and activities. Facebook outed everyone to each other through friend suggestions.
All the rest of these things don’t bother me all that much, but by knowing your associations, they can infer things like political affiliation, and currently it seems like being in a database of people who hang out with “the enemy” is very dangerous for folks who take action behind the scenes while keeping a neutral face in public.
It’s pretty scary what information you can infer from geolocational data, it’s why you should try your best to not use it as much as possible.
When an app asks for your location only give it the minimum geolocation and time if you’re absolutely sure it needs it (for delivery make sure there’s not a place you can manually enter the dropoff location first, etc).
Also, “fine location” is a much more invasive technology than people think. Apple and Google have giant databases of Wifi broadcast locations and associated positions, which is what gives you the “more accurate location.”
If you want to help do your part to mitigate that turn off your router’s SSID broadcast and make sure none of your devices attempt to “auto connect” to your wifi.
Using open source software on lineage OS or graphene OS with no Google Play services solves the vast majority of the problems brought up in this article. It doesn’t solve all of them, but it solves most of them.
I moved over to mostly open source apps where possible. My main issue will be the banking apps that insist on safety net.
Graphene os is great on paper but I would like to buy a different brand than pixel like fairphone.
Barrier too high for the normie. We need a commercial Graphene OS offering.
But even then the normie will be compelled to install GPS. Can’t even fucking get an uber anymore 🤡
not graphene but i know the company Murena offers phones of different vendors with i think e/os, maybe other OS too
In the wise words of Carl Brutananadilewski…
Buy a faraday bag and keep your phone in it at all times unless you’re using it or sitting at home. That’s what I do.
It’s extreme, but I don’t see any other defense except not having a phone.
Turning off GPS and turning on airplane mode should do the exact same, right? If you don’t trust your OS you could use something like GrapheneOS or LineageOS, that’s what I do. I don’t feel the need to physically stop my phone from collecting data if it’s Operating System is free software and built to respect my privacy. That way my smartphone actually does what I want, instead of working against my interests. Constantly fighting against the device you carry all day sounds exhausting.
Your windows laptop too.
But better go Linux
Couldn’t you just, like, turn it off?
Off really isn’t off anymore, more like standby and it can still send data.
Would you mind sharing why you think that?
I’m not the person you’re replying to, but I don’t think it’s paranoid to think the three letter agencies have this tech. Back in 2013 NSA could do it, seemingly through a virus. Now? It’s probably more trivial on certain phones. Apparently the “find my iPhone” feature works on the most recent generations of iPhones even when they’ve powered off, and some phones will ring a set alarm when when off (I’ll get back to you with an edit if my older smartphone has that feature).
If you’re being specifically targeted by three letter agencies it might be a concern. Everyone else I don’t know.
I think acknowledging that there may be things we don’t know and if you’re trying not to be tracked not carrying a phone is probably smart makes sense. The people making these sweeping assertions about how phones work in general with no evidence not so much.
I suggest installing something like e/os which is phone without google and tracking. You somehow have to make sure that the hardware itself does not communicate outside but at least with a secure OS you are introducing the security issues by installing WhatsApp for work
I know that e/os is based on another degoogled os but i forgot the nameAnd you can put it on an up to ~8 year old phone so its good for the environment too
