The hackers said they have stolen a massive amount of data, including customer lists, information on the broader industry, and even location data harvested from smartphones which show peoples’ precise movements, and they are threatening to publish the data publicly.
They claim to have precise loc data, unless that’s not what you meant
This data is harvested from apps rather than the phones themselves, as EFF explains, “each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called real-time bidding’ (RTB). This process does more than deliver ads—it fuels government surveillance, poses national security risks, and gives data brokers easy access to your online activity. RTB might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of.”
In this case, they took it from a marketing agency, who collected it from apps, who got it from the phones.
The “app” adds location services as a permission requirement. Then they add the API for the advertiser. When they app runs, it calls the API which gathers location data.
So you’d think you can just disable location services for the app.
But what happens when they end up stealing it from Waze, or Tile, or Apple. What happens when google just sells it to people?
The only reasonable option is to turn it off at the phone level. But even then, aGPS knows. Your Carrier knows.
To stop this from being a thing, it needs to be done from the ground up with a privacy respecting OS run by a privacy respecting company, serviced by a privacy respecting server.
But what happens when they end up stealing it from Waze, or Tile, or Apple. What happens when google just sells it to people?
Indeed.
To stop this from being a thing, it needs to be done from the ground up with a privacy respecting OS run by a privacy respecting company, serviced by a privacy respecting server.
IT’S JUST THE ADVERTISING ID. NOT THE LOCATE PHONE PART.
Brought to you buy jerks who haven’t had their coffee yet and read TFA.
FTA, that TA linked to as it’s source
They claim to have precise loc data, unless that’s not what you meant
In this case, they took it from a marketing agency, who collected it from apps, who got it from the phones.
The “app” adds location services as a permission requirement. Then they add the API for the advertiser. When they app runs, it calls the API which gathers location data.
So you’d think you can just disable location services for the app.
But what happens when they end up stealing it from Waze, or Tile, or Apple. What happens when google just sells it to people?
The only reasonable option is to turn it off at the phone level. But even then, aGPS knows. Your Carrier knows.
To stop this from being a thing, it needs to be done from the ground up with a privacy respecting OS run by a privacy respecting company, serviced by a privacy respecting server.
so basically never.
Indeed.
Same as it ever was.