13 Creepy Things Your Smartphone Knows About You

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨altphoto@lemmy.today⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.rd.com/list/things-smartphone-knows-about-you/

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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Comments

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taladar@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

[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.

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- WalnutLum@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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:
  
  researchgate.net/…/284567929_Current_Events_Ident…
  
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  - lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The GPS, cell tower, and wifi info wouldn’t give that away first?
    
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- elvith@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Wait if that’s the most ridiculous part, then… Does the smartphone even know when it’s switched on or off?
  
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  - MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Absolutely. Power log will be uploaded immediately upon power up.
    
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- squid_slime@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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MagicShel@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- WalnutLum@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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.
  
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  - sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It really is a trade-off with convenience because auto connecting to Wi-Fi is wonderful, and Wi-Fi-corrected location data is much better for navigating in urban areas.
    
    Is it wrong to want the convenience and the privacy, both?
    
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- swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Sounds kinky
  
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  - MagicShel@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Sure but it doesn’t matter if it was bdsm clubs, gay bars, Freemasons, book clubs, worship, or 4H, I should be able to have an expectation of privacy in my associations.
    
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pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
mutterring under breath: grapheneos

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I can’t wait for Linux phones to be a thing. Until then, GrapheneOS and CalyxOS FTW!
  
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- Zurgo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  A Pixel phone?! In this economy?!
  
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  - pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I don’t think they’re that bad. A pixel 8a is like 300
    
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shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- raldone01@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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.
  
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  - shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Access your bank through your web browser. And if your bank does not allow you access through your web browser, get a new bank. That’s what I did.
    
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  - sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I would want to get on a de-Googled grapheneos phone, but I know some apps will be painful to give up (e.g. Google Calendar) and I can’t predict how many apps will not be installable or not work correctly without Google Play services.
    
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  - eleitl@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Pixels are okay hardware-wise. Lifecycle is not much of a limit, since you’re relying on the upstream for patches anyway.
    
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CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- Molecular5869@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  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.
  
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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  But then you can’t receive texts and calls, which is the entire point of a mobile phone. This just sounds like a landline w/ extra steps…
  
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- Feyd@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Couldn’t you just, like, turn it off?
  
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  - Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Off really isn’t off anymore, more like standby and it can still send data.
    
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Pudutr0n@feddit.cl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
In the wise words of Carl Brutananadilewski…

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Little8Lost@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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 name

And you can put it on an up to ~8 year old phone so its good for the environment too

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