Even if your use a dumb phone with no real operating system or applications if you carry an operating cell phone your location is tracked and stored. In the US

Even if your use a dumb phone with no real operating system or applications if you carry an operating cell phone your location is tracked and stored. In the US this data is stored for 2-5 years minimum depending on which Telco you use. It is used and sold just like in this article. Tracking is how cell phones and cell basestations work. You cannot have one without the other. The better the clocks in the base stations the better the multilateration accuracy. It's already well under <100m. That you turn off GPS positioning does not matter in the slightest. As for listening to you to provide context for what ads to show, I find that supremely unlikely. Probably other aspects of your digital life are also monitored to inform this kind of thing.