Your Phone's Location Access Reveals a Lot. Here's How to Turn It Off.

By Thorin Klosowski - JUNE 29, 2022

Your phone is likely selling your location information to the highest
bidder. But there are steps you can take to help prevent that.

The issue has been raised in Congress in recent weeks. In mid-June, a
group of Democratic senators introduced legislation, called the Health
and Location Data Protection Act, that seeks to ban data brokers from
sharing the location and health data they collect. Although banning
the sharing of health data seems pretty self-explanatory--and it's
frankly shocking to learn that there are no protections against its
sale already--location-data collection has long been an issue that has
flown under many people's radar.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/turning-off-phone-location-access/

--
(Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)

***** Moderator's Note *****

My phone is just a microcomputer that does what it's programmed to
do. It's not my phone that is selling my location data - it is my
phone *COMPANY* that is doing it.

Bill Horne
Moderator

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On 7/18/2022 3:18 AM, Bill Horne wrote:

Your Phone's Location Access Reveals a Lot. Here's How to Turn It Off.
...
***** Moderator's Note *****

My phone is just a microcomputer that does what it's programmed to
do. It's not my phone that is selling my location data - it is my
phone *COMPANY* that is doing it.

Not necessarily. While the phone company does know where you are, at
least down to the which-cell level. the phone itself has GPS (required
for E911 location purposes, though you sometimes wonder if the people
behind such rules had other interests in mind), and apps can be given permission to access it. Then the app itself can communicate with its
servers. The carrier has nothing to do with it. You can, however, go
into the app permissions settings in Android and see which apps have
Location permission, and when (all the time, or only when using it, for instance).

The Wirecutter article is behind a paywall. You get one or two free
articles a month; being a Times subscriber doesn't cut it either. (The
NY Times also charges extra for its recipes page.)

--
Fred R. Goldstein k1io fred "at" ionary.com
+1 617 795 2701

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On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 09:11:41AM -0400, Fred Goldstein wrote:

On 7/18/2022 3:18 AM, Bill Horne wrote:

Your Phone's Location Access Reveals a Lot. Here's How to Turn It Off.
...
***** Moderator's Note *****

My phone is just a microcomputer that does what it's programmed to
do. It's not my phone that is selling my location data - it is my
phone *COMPANY* that is doing it.

Not necessarily. While the phone company does know where you are, at
least down to the which-cell level. the phone itself has GPS (required
for E911 location purposes, though you sometimes wonder if the people
behind such rules had other interests in mind), and apps can be given permission to access it. Then the app itself can communicate with its servers. The carrier has nothing to do with it. You can, however, go
into the app permissions settings in Android and see which apps have
Location permission, and when (all the time, or only when using it, for instance).

Sorry, I don't buy it. The Olympians heights of the phone company PR
flacks probably resound with oh-so-comforting denials, but I think
they're lying through their teeth.

Do they know which app is keeping track of who visits the abortion
clinic? I don't know - but they chose the phones they sell, and they
chose to allow apps to install with location access on by default, and
they chose to take a cut of the app revenue. They profit from every
single app, and that makes them culpable.

Bill

--
Bill Horne
(Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)

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Bill Horne <[email protected]> wrote:

On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 09:11:41AM -0400, Fred Goldstein wrote:

Not necessarily. While the phone company does know where you are, at
least down to the which-cell level. the phone itself has GPS (required
for E911 location purposes, though you sometimes wonder if the people
behind such rules had other interests in mind), and apps can be given
permission to access it. Then the app itself can communicate with its
servers. The carrier has nothing to do with it. You can, however, go
into the app permissions settings in Android and see which apps have
Location permission, and when (all the time, or only when using it, for
instance).

Sorry, I don't buy it. The Olympians heights of the phone company PR
flacks probably resound with oh-so-comforting denials, but I think
they're lying through their teeth.

I'm not saying that the phone company isn't collecting your position data.
But read what Fred is saying.... by default any app running on your phone
has access to your position data. It's not JUST the phone company. It's
any company whose apps you are using. A whole raft of companies have access
to your data and they ALL are likely to be collecting it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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