4 ms·
Forgive me if this seems obtuse but honestly seriously in each of our phones is an antenna, over that antenna is sent radiowaves, encoded in those radiowaves is
by ghotli 8y ago
Forgive me if this seems obtuse but honestly seriously in each of our phones is an antenna, over that antenna is sent radiowaves, encoded in those radiowaves is information that must be decoded by the other side of the transmission.
Each layer of that has a specification, in that specification each side has implementations of that specification. To me, I fundamentally don't care what an individual corporation "can or can't do". I care what the spec says, because that's what the corporation can and can't do unless they have something completely 100% proprietary.
Speculation is worthless, show me the spec of what function calls enable the collection of this data, and what the structure of the message looks like over the wire.
Beyond that, on a rooted device that I have full control over, I should be able to work out the details of how that's happening and whether or not I want to fiddle with it to allow my carry around computer to do so or not.
If the implicit assumption that root access to my pocket computer makes it unable to turn off such a thing, then that's news. The rest are layers and layers of complexity as to what the defaults of the systems involved are allowed to do via permissions systems. We're either cool with those defaults, or we aren't.
So, imo. Start with the specs, if it's possible via them then it's surely happening whether or not it's "legal" to do so. My apologies if this comes across as harsh, but what else did we expect? We're fortunate enough to live in the cusp of the information age, but the first 50/100/200 years of this are bound to be messy before it either goes full dystopian forever, or enough outrage affects those defaults.
- implying 8y agoThis isn't just about software capabilities. The telcos don't need to have remote code execution on the device. Their huge network of receivers has to identify your device for routing, and that reveals your location. Simply connecting to the towers implies that you're within a few miles of them. In areas with denser coverage, triangulating you within a few meters is trivial, and I suspect that every network is storing your location in perpetuity from this method alone. It isn't a issue of software freedom, it's an issue of having a radio signal emitting from your pocket to a huge network of receivers with known positions. Only way to guarantee you aren't being tracked is to turn the signal off, which isn't feasible for most.
- ghotli 8y agoI hear ya, and I personally understand that that's the case, thus if just the "connection" of my antenna to the tower reveals information I personally don't care to share then the natural next question is: "can I toggle the antenna off on my own device except when I want to reveal my location, or is that beyond my control as long as the antenna has power?" I personally don't know that I mind it, but some people do and that's the question that is either allowed by some spec or isn't. edit: furthermore, just connecting to the towers at all would give approximate information, unless it's connecting to multiples wherein they can triangulate. the other question would be "can I compromise and force my antenna into 'one tower at a time' mode" via some spec. Would I then affect my ability to do tower handoffs upon movement without having multiple tower connections? If so, do I care that my antenna is forced into single tower "approximate location" mode with drops upon new tower acquisition or not? What spec controls that and can I control it via root access to my device? See what I mean?
- ubolonton_ 8y agoThis is probably between the baseband firmware and the SIM card, so rooting wouldn't help. And it's using A-GPS (probably in MSA mode, where the location is derived on the servers, not the phones), not just cell tower triangulation.