I think generally speaking these privacy articles fail to convince the majority of people that there’s a problem, which is crucial to be able to sell the solution.
I think the abortion part is the most relatable, but you’ll hear them say they’ve got nothing to hide. I believe getting access to that data and show people what data they have on them would be the most effective. It’s like saying to someone that has nothing to hide “oh yeah? Give me your phone and your documents, let me browse what’s on them”
“Don’t worry I’m just gonna do the same thing your spying apps do. Let’s see here, oh these are some interesting texts, hey pictures, ooohhh a nude well let me just “anonymize” this by removing the metadata (close enough) and I’ll just send that to my “server” (it’s my phone)… Why? Well so I can more effectively sell you things of course! It looks like you need clothes, check out these pants from Target and this shirt from H&M, don’t you wanna buy them? No? Well ok, here check out those exact same fucking things but this time from Walmart and Macy’s!”
People can be irrational like that. But I bet if there’s a really successful horror movie where the killer finds the victim’s location then people will care.
I feel like this needs to be real, not a movie. Not someone who gets killed, just someone who sees their own data
You can take it a step further. If you live in an area with a lot of theft, put some tracking tags on things that tend to get stolen, then see how easily you can track them down. An attacker can track your phone in much the same way as you tracking down that tag, so if you have a particularly motivated stalker, they could figure out exactly where you are.
A lot of great comments here. I just wanted to add that even just your ip address is enough to roughly track your location. When your phone checks gmail you are leaving digital breadcrumbs in Google’s logs of your ip address which roughly tracks your location. App permissions will not solve this. We need strong privacy regulations with teeth.
And then there’s wifi triangulation and Bluetooth which narrows it down further
And this is why my GPS and Bluetooth are disabled 99% of the time unless I’m actually using them. It cuts down on a lot of potential data leakage.
Can’t they just triangulate you from cell towers?
Take the battery out I guess?
I don’t think enough people have mentioned that Auto manufacturers have been able to locate vehicles since the 90’s.
I’m pretty sure my car doesn’t have tracking, and it’s from the mid 2000s. Phoning home wasn’t standard until relatively recent car models. I could absolutely be wrong though, but my understanding is that any wireless capabilities it has are limited to close proximity (i.e. tire pressure sensors and the like).
Standard in 2008 If the auto manufacturer offered OnStar or Sirius, earlier.
I wish it wasn’t true, and I definitely feel like a nut job when I bring it up.
Originally the D.A.I.R. project (Driver Aid, Information and Routing) was conceptualized in the 60’s. It wasn’t until Hughes assisted EDS in the 90’s that they were able to create a beacon that could communicate via Satellite and Cellular.
I myself didn’t realize this was a thing until about a decade ago when I was trying to create an automation for my lights to turn on when I pulled into my driveway. I kept getting a ping about 5min after my phone connected to my WiFi. The MAC matched nothing I had in the house, I just blew it off.
When an associate stopped by to work on a HoneyPot project we started seeing a bunch of random MACs attempt to connect to the open wifi, we wrote that noise off as people walking by my house and their cell phones were just trying to connect. It wasn’t until the garbage man showed up and stopped to talk to me that I was able to find his truck listed with an address connected to the open wifi, sent a few packets, then left. We made the correlation that the MAC’s could be from cars so we started researching the manufacturer of those device MAC’s
That pretty much opened a weird rabbit hole leading us to find out that almost every car has been tracked since the mid-90’s.
Joking aside, I would move to Amish country if it weren’t for the whiskey and bitches. But in all honesty; my family lives a much more comfortable life than I ever imagined I would with working in the IT field.
There’s a got to be a way to create an sudo Amish community where technology is hyper regulated but still allowed
Same as today, but slower.
GM’s OnStar was notorious for this. I think the first version had a 2G cell modem
Laughs in no phone
I have my location turned off for everything and keep mine in a Faraday bag. That said, there was one tip in this article I wasn’t aware of: deleting my advertising ID, so everyone should read it and see if you can’t improve your own privacy.
It feels good when I have to use it and, for a moment it says “no service”, like kicking the tech assholes in the dick.
Damn I had advertising id disabled ever since I had been using any online account
Do you have a recommendation for a Faraday bag? I am looking to get a few.
You won’t, it’s a conscious trade off. Some people never put a sim or esim in their phone and have a separate dumb phone for calls, or separate hotspot
This vide explains the trade offs, reason, and approach of havjng a separate device for data: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyirQOCUUK8
And this guy shares his approach of not having a sim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dei2buz1X0
