This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Turning off our phones isn't the answer, prohibiting this invasive and predatory practice is the solution. They couldn't follow you around town and all the way home, and take note of your address without getting flagged for stalking, or at least a restraining order.
They shouldn't be able to stalk you electronically, any more than they can do it on person.
Shouldn't be able to but the vast majority of the public ceded their privacy to corporations long ago for discounts or features or content (or just no reason at all), corporations will always be buddy-buddy with the state, so here we are. The horses are out of the barn, the barn's been burned down, the horses have been cremated and the ashes snorted by Don Jr. I sure would like to see a return to pre-techno-dystopian values tho.
That needs to change through legislation. A government that operates on behalf of the people should be prohibiting those sorts of invasive programs for any reason, whether commerce or law enforcement.
And yes, we would hear LOTS of excuses as to why this can't end, but it can end. All we have to is end it, and the corporations and law enforcement will adapt to operating without tech they didn't have only 5-10 years ago, you know like back in the olden days when they couldn't solve any crimes because they couldn't track anybody's phone because all the phones were hanging on the wall in everybody's kitchen? I wonder how they solved crimes back then?
They'll figure it out.
Everyone should be using an ad blocker for this reason exactly.
Ads are often the culprit of data for the location data brokers. Fuck the ads.
Important to note that it isnt just ads. Any app on your phone with location permission can share it, including some OEM aps qnd bloatware depending on the phone.
If you dont want to be seen, dont take your phone. About the only reasonable way to be sure your data isnt being collected is to not create the data in the first place.
Stay safe out there.
I disable location services, I dont have sim on my phone all the time, I only put the sim on the phone when I expect a traditional(insecure and shit) call or SMS (which I only ever get whe verifying phone number), my phone is always in airplane mode
If you are not specifically targeted d/t your status... start first with phone free Fridays. You will feel at first some discomfort... but after that initial feeling... you will start to feel free. Make sure your family has your work number. Turn off the phone on the weekend and put it in something like a lead lined or metal mesh sack... what they used to call a Faraday Cage/Bag.
People get offended whenever I've said that even random app developers are part of the problem. They can't or won't see that what we have arrived at is a Kafkesque world. It has been death by millions of papercuts. The collective rush to make an "app for everything" was in net effect building a global surveillance dragnet. It was inevitable the aggregate of data would turned into an authoritarian system of oppression.
All you wanted to do was make a 99 cents a sale for your basic phone app. You blindly stuffed it with copy-paste analytics APIs that voraciously collect data from users without transparency at all. You insisted that these random data brokers are 100% super honest. Just trust them, bro. You ridiculed anyone of trying to warn people how reckless this is. Good job, guys.
Your phone company is selling this data. Your tax dollars are then used to spy on you. But let's place the blame with the enablers. If the data wasn't being sold, ICE couldn't buy it with your money.
Privacy is a myth in the United States.
There's plenty of blame to go around on this, no need to only go after one party in the whole chain that allows this to occur.
yeah, you have to analog.
Privacy is a myth everywhere that you use social media, cellular connected GPS trackers (aka phones), drive around with unique number plates while OCR capable video cameras take continuous records of which plates passed by them and when. Yes, it's bad in the US. Is it better anywhere else?
The people should start buying this data to identify ICE personnel involved in incidents. It's not like you need to be law enforcement to get access to this. You just need money.
Pretty sure someone was able to pose as a PI and get paid access a while ago.
Darknet Diaries had an episode on it
Remember that tv series "Person of Interest?"... we need someone to be that guy and his team.
I bet a nonprofit would have a reasonable chance of raising the funds to buy the data and publicly publish it.
We need to be more careful than that, no one wants to end up on a list when a non-profit is required to show its books.
Should be a very private and affordable for-profit with some reasonable way to keep payments off the books
Do not take your phone to protests/rallies/organized events. Do not turn it off and take it with you thinking it's okay, they will know when and where you turned it off. Jury is still out if modern phones truly turn off as well. Use a regular camera for taking pictures, take lots of them, get faces, IDs, anything if you can of ICE. Let them start the violence first.
also, tape recorders. And if you travel out of the country... buy a burner flip phone to use.
Pardon the pedanticness: Phones do NOT completely power down. The jury is out on if they are still traceable in "standby"/psuedo-powered off mode. The generally accepted advice is to treat them like they are still tracable.
If "Find my phone" still works when it's turned off, then yes, phones are definitely traceable when powered down.
For iPhones, Find My only works powered off by Bluetooth connections to other devices. Unless someone is scanning and tracking Bluetooth radios, they can’t track you.
The vulnerability in the article is about apps that send location data back to a third party who makes it available to law enforcement.
Mainly, this is a problem for people who give any random app access to location data.
One of the best things about phones with batteries you can replace. You can take them out of the phone as well.
Yep, I miss removable batteries. Not just for the ability to replace the batteries (e.g. due to degradation) but also to be able to completely remove power from the device.
It's worth adding that, if you are arrested, that phone is a treasure-trove of potential liability that will absolutely get used against you. Also, you're probably not getting it back, so you're better off without it. Carry cash, a map if you must, and coordinate rally points and fallback locations with your friends ahead of time.
A proper camera is a good tip, but make sure the camera memory and storage card are wiped ahead of time.
You can also use an old style camera that uses film or a polaroid. Take ziplocs or black bags to put in and hide like a cache bag.
It wasn't that long ago we had phones that couldn't leave the house. This choice does still exist for us.
Does it? It was possible a while ago, but in the last years, we saw train tickets going to apps. There is no ticket machine at my local stop. There are areas where you can only park your car with an app. I need 2FA to get into my accounts. Restaurants have QR code menus. So going to protests or just living your life without a phone is getting harder
just living your life without a phone is getting harder
This is a bigger problem than most realize. Consider the barrier-to-entry for phones, internet access, and charging. Then add cashless payment on top of that. Combined, it creates a new red-line between economic classes, and a rather ugly one at that. At some point, this mode of commerce is going to get selected not for the convenience it provides, but for whom it excludes.
I'll also add that getting access to a smartphone with total anonymity is impressively hard to do.
I lived without a cell phone for about 3 years (2022-2025), and once in a while there was a small hurdle but overall it was surprisingly easy. 2FA can be done via text/email, I never ran into an instance where I needed an app. Every ticket I bought could be printed at home, so it takes a little more forethought but not a deal breaker. Never ran into any parking stations that couldn't be paid via a kiosk/card, but YMMV.
These days I own a phone per request of one of my business clients, but it stays turned off at home unless I'm on a job. Once in a while I'll break it out to use the GPS but most places I drive to I can find by memory. There are many "middle" ground solutions out there too (like Graphene OS), but as a general rule, I would make a habit of leaving your phone at home when you can, and definitely when engaging in anything spicy.
Yes, and printed maps still work. Keeping an address/phone book still works (so do sharpies on your arm).
The choice does exist, but it gets harder and harder to go without a phone
Many jobs expect us to be available at all hours. Younger generations cannot navigate without maps. Phones are also the primary way we record/observe ICE. They're also our calendar/organizer, notebook, and many other things
Sure, we can have an independent GPS, camera, calendar, and notepad, but the barrier keeps getting higher
We need to develop counter measures, and long-term pass strong laws banning this level of government surveillance
Public payphones in the streets and emergency phones alongside highways have also been removed (at least in my country). So yeah, our society expects us to have our own phones with us whenever we're away from home.
I thought this was going to say they were deploying Stingrays in neighborhoods. Pretty sure this is worse, because at least a Stingray requires something be physically present. Fuck all of this.
Yeah, same. I setup an Orbic with RayHunter exactly for this reason. I took that with me when I've gone by protests just to see if there's one present. Then, if in the clear, shut down my personal devices and attended. I'm paranoid like that I guess...
Setup Meshtastic nodes too.
Having the ability to communicate without using cellular infrastructure is incredibly useful, especially during natural disasters (which ICE certainly qualifies).
My guess is the get the phone info from protests and then use the data from location data brokers to track further.
"This is wrong" — Lucius Fox, The Dark Knight
Prescient, and also an example of copaganda/how corporate media conditions the public to accept this shit because the "good guy" is the one using it.
Per EFF: US a surveillance regime as much as North Korea, China and Russia.
US surveillance is far more effective than North Korea or Russia's domestic surveillance
Only China is in the same realm in terms of ability to surveil citizens. They're just more open about using it for low-level offenses
In July 2023, PenLink merged with Israeli surveillance contractor Cobwebs Technologies
Tangles is a web platform, originally developed and sold by Israeli firm Cobwebs Technologies, that scrapes data from the open web, deep web, and dark web, as well as allowing for the tracking of mobile devices within a user-designated area, in a process known as "geofencing," through an optional add-on feature called WebLoc.
Cobwebs and how the spying is going global.
