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US cell carriers are selling access to real-time location data
- Thread starter kingocfs
- Start date
... Which is bullshit because you pretty much need a cell phone in this day and age.
I don't think that even switching to flip phones would help.
Privacy in the U.S. has completely gone out of the window. If only this country were to enact European privacy laws, as they don't tolerate that shit.
Things like these may just be to abstract for a larger audience to understand... or rather, people think they understand the gist and "can't do anything anyway" or the usual "I want them to have my data to provide better services"-crap.
It's sad... but if even places like era a littered with these types of people, how much do you think the general population would care...
The way they get your location in this case is from cell towers. A flip phone won't help.
Not to be that guy, but you probably did when you signed your contract(s)
Agree that many statements are handwavey
You're going to need to never go on the internet ever again to get around this. Even then, facial recognition is real. Ghostery even says this forum has trackers.
The thing that pisses me off, if theyre selling our data, make the networks better and lower the damn prices. Clearly congestion is bullshit as to why unlimited data plans disappear when theyre constantly pinging devices
Tor isnt 100% secure, governments have found people just by watching the nodes they use Tor on and using an OS like Tails seems silly just to use the internet. At that point you're either doing something illegal or probably should just get off the internet and move into a cave
You don't want a cut when someone buys your data? If you don't care that they aren't personally tracking you then fine, but anonymity isn't the only thing you're missing out on ;)
It probably is. However, there's no enforcement whatsoever and I see no reason to think companies don't do it worldwide.
Watch the recent movie, Bad Samaritan. Then think about anyone being able to buy this information. Now how do you feel about it?
I've found Apple's OS much easier to turn off things like this. It was rather weird that it would track daily activities by telling me "it'll take you this long to get here" and that's with all the tracking services turned off except when in use. I had to look up online how to turn the feature off, and it's in a folder in privacy settings. So even though gps wasn't supposed be enabled unless I was using Maps, the phone was still keeping track.
I still don't like it when stores track that I've visited their site and then promptly send me an email asking if I still want the item. If anyone knows how to turn that off, I'd love to hear.
I still don't understand how companies spend millions on marketing and tracking like this, and still turn a profits. What do they gain out of this knowledge or are that many people gullible to their advertising tactics?
I will never understand people who handwave this shit. It's the most self centered response imaginable. Just because you don't care about these things happening does not mean it is not a big deal or that people cannot be angry to learn about this. You are not the arbiter as to what companies can do with our data or whether selling my data gives me benefits I deem adequate- which is fucking insane since you have no idea who or why it was even sold in the first place.
I posted a thread about this sort of stuff a few months back and it was labeled as tin foil shit.
I'm sure that the instant you connect to ToR you get put on some FBI / CIA / NSA watchlist and become subject to more surveillance than the average person. ToR does nothing to hide the fact that you are using it, it only hides the destination of your packets.
I probably won't watch the movie. No one is targeting me personally, or if they are, they don't need this info to do it.
EDIT:
But yeah I wouldn't mind getting a discount for opting in!
Does this happen on Apple phones and can it still track my location if I turn my phone completely off when I am not using it?
You've beaten them.
Go. Tell the others! There is hope. I thought my discreet visits to The Sizzler would go unnoticed. How wrong I was. :(
Yeah im not sure what's going on with it but im fine with this. I'm sure they'll get the right location again once I get a new phone lol
Here's a fun update from someone who read the HN thread and decided to do some tinkering around...
https://www.robertxiao.ca/hacking/locationsmart/
Oops.
https://www.robertxiao.ca/hacking/locationsmart/
Oops.
Am I crazy to find it hard to believe that cell providers actually sell our real-time locations directly associated with phone numbers? I always assumed they were selling the location associated with some anonymized unique ID, so that it can be used for statistical Advertising research or whatever. I actually think this company has found some way to associate this anonymous ID with people's real phone numbers, and they are then selling that... which is probably illegal, and it's why FCC is now going to investigate them: https://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-investigating-locationsmart-over-phone-tracking-flaw/
This takes creepy to a whole next level. I don't even see the point, why do these higher-ups even need to know our exact locations to begin with? Its taking stalking to a whole new level and I don't like it. This kind of crap shouldn't be legal.
You know those bracelets some parents buy for their children so they can track their location in real time?
You now have one. Only it's not your parents tracking you. It's anyone willing to pay for it. Your ex-wife, your boss, the company you applied for a job at, the crazy stalker you once dated, the guy you got in a fight with, the people who've heard you have something valuable in your home and want to know your movement patterns to plan the break-in.
Remember the scene in Minority report when Tom Cruise walks by an ad screen and it reacts to him being there because it recognises him from the iris scan and tailors the ad to him? Well, imagine you're walking through a city and every single time you pass an ad screen it flashes an ad for the product you put into your Amazon basket that morning but deleted because you had second thoughts. For the next two weeks this is the only ad you'll see until you buy the product.
Is this still a good thing to your benefit? Or to their bottomline.
They already do and it's not, strangely. A company can pay for geofencing on specific addresses (like a competitors store) and once a person is tagged there, they're blasted with ads from the buyer.
Let's say that I lead a large criminal organisation. I buy this geolocalisation service under some false pretense. I write a script that will flag all phone numbers that enter a few select locations, like the FBI headquarters, nearby police stations, over a large period. Then I compare with the list of phone numbers that entered the places where I do my business.
If any of them appear on both, that's one dead undercover agent.
But if it make life a little more convenient for you (and more expensive, those guys are doing this because you end up giving them more money, they aren't doing it to please you), then it's worth it, right?
i'm about ready to start an insurrection against tech companies, fuck them, they've crossed the line too many times now.
this is some super shady shit to do on such a large scale without transparency, and to benefit such a narrow group of investors and whoever. Orwellian doesn't even begin to describe it IMO.
hedge funds etc and big data control need to be hit with some serious oversight and regulations.. i hope the EU is on this.
this is some super shady shit to do on such a large scale without transparency, and to benefit such a narrow group of investors and whoever. Orwellian doesn't even begin to describe it IMO.
hedge funds etc and big data control need to be hit with some serious oversight and regulations.. i hope the EU is on this.
the reason this became a story is because some podunk cop was tracking individuals for personal reasons without a warrant
as long as this data is out there it doesn't matter why it was originally collected, people will use it for evil reasons
This type of stuff isn't necessarily used for nefarious purposes. And the data is generally aggregated so it cant be traced back to any one person, and in pact its the aggregation that makes it useful.
For example, in transportation planning there is a company called StreetLightData that tracks peoples movements and aggregates the information so planners can see travel patterns and plan infrastructure needs for the present and future. Having accurate and comprehensive data for that is important.
Of course, issues arise when the data is abused, and I'm not sure what the solution for that is.
For example, in transportation planning there is a company called StreetLightData that tracks peoples movements and aggregates the information so planners can see travel patterns and plan infrastructure needs for the present and future. Having accurate and comprehensive data for that is important.
Of course, issues arise when the data is abused, and I'm not sure what the solution for that is.
And people will always be evil. If he didn't have access to this data he could have stalked in another way. This data didn't cause people to be creepy stalkers with issues respecting boundaries.
The cop should obviously be punished for abusing the data. But I don't blame the data existing for what happened.