5 ms·

Do you think if you disable this they will not share with law enforcement? I wonder if it makes a difference.

gregschlom 7y ago
It does make a difference. If you disable it, the data doesn't get stored in the first place, so there's nothing to share.
- woodrowbarlow 7y ago
  is this verifiable?
  - jessriedel 7y ago
    Very little your cell phone is doing is truly verifiable. If you don't trust Google/Apple to not bald-face lie, and privacy is super important to you, toss your phone.
  - ody4242 7y ago
    Yes. You can reverse engineer apk-s to see what's going on. (apktool) Or you can inspect the network traffic that goes through your wifi. (mitmproxy + Xposed/JustTrustMe)
- ForHackernews 7y ago
  By disable, do you mean "pause"? Is there any third-party verification that they aren't storing this data? Are they just not associating it with my account at this time?
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  How would you know that? My base assumption is to think there’s a possibility that it’s still being tracked in some way.
- behringer 7y ago
  It makes no different. The data is still logged.
- bitL 7y ago
  Wasn't there news a few years back that Android Phones uploaded location history happening while "offline" when they finally connected to WiFi; that ended up blamed as "a bug"? OTOH law enforcement has a direct access to baseband modem anyway, so they can triangulate switched off phones with batteries inside, and if those phones have large enough capacitors, even with removed batteries. Having some competent aggregator like Google might be helpful though.
  - seriousaccount1 7y ago
    Do you a citation for that? That government had access to the modem and being able to locate switched off phones?
    - bitL 7y ago
      IIRC there was some discussion about it on some Neo900-related forums, but it was a few years I'd looked over there. One of the reasons they had switches for both baseband modem and mic to be sure they aren't powered.
- kyrra 7y ago
  This was discussed a couple months ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19653647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19653647 My comment on it (expanded a little): Even without Google or Apple, the police have the cell service providers. In the case of the Austin bomber from a year ago[0], police got cell tower records from the multiple bombings and figured out who was at all the locations. Cell phones are little trackers unless you turn them off or don't carry one. The police don't need Google or Apple here, the carriers are already tracking who connects to what towers (and I believe they are required to do this by law) [0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna858791 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna85...

It does make a difference. If you disable it, the data doesn't get stored in the first place, so there's nothing to share.

woodrowbarlow 7y ago
is this verifiable?
- jessriedel 7y ago
  Very little your cell phone is doing is truly verifiable. If you don't trust Google/Apple to not bald-face lie, and privacy is super important to you, toss your phone.
- ody4242 7y ago
  Yes. You can reverse engineer apk-s to see what's going on. (apktool) Or you can inspect the network traffic that goes through your wifi. (mitmproxy + Xposed/JustTrustMe)
ForHackernews 7y ago
By disable, do you mean "pause"? Is there any third-party verification that they aren't storing this data? Are they just not associating it with my account at this time?
skinnymuch 7y ago
How would you know that? My base assumption is to think there’s a possibility that it’s still being tracked in some way.
behringer 7y ago
It makes no different. The data is still logged.
bitL 7y ago
Wasn't there news a few years back that Android Phones uploaded location history happening while "offline" when they finally connected to WiFi; that ended up blamed as "a bug"? OTOH law enforcement has a direct access to baseband modem anyway, so they can triangulate switched off phones with batteries inside, and if those phones have large enough capacitors, even with removed batteries. Having some competent aggregator like Google might be helpful though.
- seriousaccount1 7y ago
  Do you a citation for that? That government had access to the modem and being able to locate switched off phones?
  - bitL 7y ago
    IIRC there was some discussion about it on some Neo900-related forums, but it was a few years I'd looked over there. One of the reasons they had switches for both baseband modem and mic to be sure they aren't powered.
kyrra 7y ago
This was discussed a couple months ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19653647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19653647 My comment on it (expanded a little): Even without Google or Apple, the police have the cell service providers. In the case of the Austin bomber from a year ago[0], police got cell tower records from the multiple bombings and figured out who was at all the locations. Cell phones are little trackers unless you turn them off or don't carry one. The police don't need Google or Apple here, the carriers are already tracking who connects to what towers (and I believe they are required to do this by law) [0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna858791 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna85...