3 ms·

You should be alright if Bluetooth and WiFi are off. Unless you think they're spoofing a cell tower.

hunter2_ 4y ago
Does one need to spoof a tower (actively transmit/handshake) or can one simply listen? Is it virtually impossible to do some kind of phased array that tracks the location of mobile transmitters since they're encrypted? Maybe the transmissions aren't frequent/continuous enough unless the user is actively using data or on a call... I'm sure many people here know way more than I.
- tarotuser 4y ago
  > Is it virtually impossible to do some kind of phased array that tracks the location of mobile transmitters since they're encrypted? A phased array can still provide positioning reports even if it can't decipher the data. And, well, doing so would be illegal. Frankly, I'd use facial recognition combined with a phased array to realtime plot people in a facility. And if they use their credit card, I'd then connect the CC, their face, the pattern they walked, and to the free wifi the store provides to get access to phone-OS data. Now you can realtime track all your customers who show up. And that data gets sold to whoever buys. Hmm, buying unhealthy food from your receipt? Your insurance company bought the list and will now raise rates on you.
  - hunter2_ 4y ago
    Hopefully my insurance company doesn't have another customer who shares my name, who has those bad habits, with the matching being fuzzy enough that the raised rates are applied to both of us...
tenebrisalietum 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher
JohnFen 4y ago
I am not aware of any stores that use anything other than BT or WiFi. But if they wanted to spoof a cell tower, it's certainly not technically hard. You can buy a device to do it for a few hundred dollars. It's very illegal, of course. But if they wanted to use your cell emissions for tracking, they wouldn't even need to spoof anything at all. They'd just have to passively listen to your phone talking with real towers.

Does one need to spoof a tower (actively transmit/handshake) or can one simply listen? Is it virtually impossible to do some kind of phased array that tracks the location of mobile transmitters since they're encrypted? Maybe the transmissions aren't frequent/continuous enough unless the user is actively using data or on a call... I'm sure many people here know way more than I.

tarotuser 4y ago
> Is it virtually impossible to do some kind of phased array that tracks the location of mobile transmitters since they're encrypted? A phased array can still provide positioning reports even if it can't decipher the data. And, well, doing so would be illegal. Frankly, I'd use facial recognition combined with a phased array to realtime plot people in a facility. And if they use their credit card, I'd then connect the CC, their face, the pattern they walked, and to the free wifi the store provides to get access to phone-OS data. Now you can realtime track all your customers who show up. And that data gets sold to whoever buys. Hmm, buying unhealthy food from your receipt? Your insurance company bought the list and will now raise rates on you.
- hunter2_ 4y ago
  Hopefully my insurance company doesn't have another customer who shares my name, who has those bad habits, with the matching being fuzzy enough that the raised rates are applied to both of us...

tenebrisalietum 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher

JohnFen 4y ago

I am not aware of any stores that use anything other than BT or WiFi. But if they wanted to spoof a cell tower, it's certainly not technically hard. You can buy a device to do it for a few hundred dollars. It's very illegal, of course. But if they wanted to use your cell emissions for tracking, they wouldn't even need to spoof anything at all. They'd just have to passively listen to your phone talking with real towers.