3 ms·

This is just one more reason to keep bluetooth disabled on mobile devices. There have been other vulnerabilities with bluetooth itself, and bluetooth is constan

This is just one more reason to keep bluetooth disabled on mobile devices. There have been other vulnerabilities with bluetooth itself, and bluetooth is constantly used to track people. What's the point of leaving it on all the time when most of the time it's just going to drain your battery and open you up to being tracked or exploited.

latentcall 2y ago
I have BT headphones in all the time and my phone doesn’t have a headphone jack.
- reportgunner 2y ago
  Yeah I also have a phone without a headphone jack, I just bought a pair of usb-c wired headphones today for that reason. Bluetooth was a mistake.
  - latentcall 2y ago
    Hm, I will look into those!
    - reportgunner 2y ago
      Eventually your usb-c port will get clogged up with pocket lint. The SIM card extractor that comes with your phone works really well at cleaning it, or you can also use a toothpick to get the lint out, just be gentle so you don't bend stuff inside the port.
  - theragra 2y ago
    For tiny amount of users who care to this extent. To everyone else, bt is awesome. Headphones, hr sensors, smartwatches and fitness trackers etc etc
lxgr 2y ago
> bluetooth is constantly used to track people How so? Unless you grant Bluetooth permissions to apps (that then start broadcasting identifiers) or explicitly make your device discoverable, this shouldn't really be a thing. > What's the point of leaving it on all the time when most of the time it's just going to drain your battery and open you up to being tracked or exploited. Just people with a wearable have at least one Bluetooth device connected to their phone at all times. Bluetooth headphones are also very popular. We need hardened and privacy-protecting Bluetooth stacks, not blaming people for using their phones as designed and advertised.
- dharmab 2y ago
  Over ten years ago retailers were already tracking customer's cell phones as they walked around the store to see what sections people walked through. Your phone constantly sends radio waves out that are identifiable to the individual device. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper-stores-are-tracking-your-cell.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shoppe...
  - lxgr 2y ago
    Could you be more specific? In what way is a modern Bluetooth device (let's assume both classic and LE) uniquely identifiable, other than for the caveats mentioned above? 2013 was indeed over a decade ago.
- autoexec 2y ago
  > How so? Unless you grant Bluetooth permissions to apps (that then start broadcasting identifiers) or explicitly make your device discoverable, this shouldn't really be a thing. https://www.geoplugin.com/resources/geofencing-beacons-advanced-location-based-services-guide/ https://www.geoplugin.com/resources/geofencing-beacons-advan... https://www.rfidjournal.com/news/long-range-ble-transmits-at-20-miles/186978/ https://www.rfidjournal.com/news/long-range-ble-transmits-at... https://easytechsolver.com/what-stores-use-bluetooth-beacons/ https://easytechsolver.com/what-stores-use-bluetooth-beacons... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluet... > We need hardened and privacy-protecting Bluetooth stacks, not blaming people for using their phones as designed Phones are explicitly designed to collect and leak as much of your personal data as possible. Nobody us going to implement hardened bluetooth stacks that protect you because that defeats the whole purpose. We're lucky they allow us to disable bluetooth at all. They've already changed airplane mode to continue using wireless and bluetooth even when enabled. Any useful features of bluetooth you might use with your phone is probably just bait to get to leak more of your data. They've removed headphone jacks to force your hand, but most people could at least make sure that bluetooth isn't enabled while it isn't in active use.

latentcall 2y ago

I have BT headphones in all the time and my phone doesn’t have a headphone jack.

reportgunner 2y ago
Yeah I also have a phone without a headphone jack, I just bought a pair of usb-c wired headphones today for that reason. Bluetooth was a mistake.
- latentcall 2y ago
  Hm, I will look into those!
  - reportgunner 2y ago
    Eventually your usb-c port will get clogged up with pocket lint. The SIM card extractor that comes with your phone works really well at cleaning it, or you can also use a toothpick to get the lint out, just be gentle so you don't bend stuff inside the port.
- theragra 2y ago
  For tiny amount of users who care to this extent. To everyone else, bt is awesome. Headphones, hr sensors, smartwatches and fitness trackers etc etc

lxgr 2y ago

> bluetooth is constantly used to track people How so? Unless you grant Bluetooth permissions to apps (that then start broadcasting identifiers) or explicitly make your device discoverable, this shouldn't really be a thing. > What's the point of leaving it on all the time when most of the time it's just going to drain your battery and open you up to being tracked or exploited. Just people with a wearable have at least one Bluetooth device connected to their phone at all times. Bluetooth headphones are also very popular. We need hardened and privacy-protecting Bluetooth stacks, not blaming people for using their phones as designed and advertised.

dharmab 2y ago
Over ten years ago retailers were already tracking customer's cell phones as they walked around the store to see what sections people walked through. Your phone constantly sends radio waves out that are identifiable to the individual device. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper-stores-are-tracking-your-cell.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shoppe...
- lxgr 2y ago
  Could you be more specific? In what way is a modern Bluetooth device (let's assume both classic and LE) uniquely identifiable, other than for the caveats mentioned above? 2013 was indeed over a decade ago.
autoexec 2y ago
> How so? Unless you grant Bluetooth permissions to apps (that then start broadcasting identifiers) or explicitly make your device discoverable, this shouldn't really be a thing. https://www.geoplugin.com/resources/geofencing-beacons-advanced-location-based-services-guide/ https://www.geoplugin.com/resources/geofencing-beacons-advan... https://www.rfidjournal.com/news/long-range-ble-transmits-at-20-miles/186978/ https://www.rfidjournal.com/news/long-range-ble-transmits-at... https://easytechsolver.com/what-stores-use-bluetooth-beacons/ https://easytechsolver.com/what-stores-use-bluetooth-beacons... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluet... > We need hardened and privacy-protecting Bluetooth stacks, not blaming people for using their phones as designed Phones are explicitly designed to collect and leak as much of your personal data as possible. Nobody us going to implement hardened bluetooth stacks that protect you because that defeats the whole purpose. We're lucky they allow us to disable bluetooth at all. They've already changed airplane mode to continue using wireless and bluetooth even when enabled. Any useful features of bluetooth you might use with your phone is probably just bait to get to leak more of your data. They've removed headphone jacks to force your hand, but most people could at least make sure that bluetooth isn't enabled while it isn't in active use.