Google installed a Covid-19 tracker on my phone

[grsthegreat]

The ONLY reason i have a smart phone is due to the need to accept credit card payments for my business. I hate the dam* things. When this one dies, its back to flip phone or landline.

 

[Sigarms]

The ONLY reason i have a smart phone is due to the need to accept credit card payments for my business. I hate the dam* things. When this one dies, its back to flip phone or landline.

20 years ago I had to carry a laptop for work. 10 years ago started using an iPad for most of what I needed to do on a laptop. It was only about 8 years ago that I started doing most things I needed to access by using my phone. Most of the time, generally need to access technical documents. I've found the more progressive thinknig companies are hyperlinking their larger documents (makes them easier to navigate on smaller devices) which even if they don't create, I can generally do from my desktop to save to my phone.

Yes, big brother is watching, and in today electronic age, I'm guessing it's getting easier and easier to do. Who here hasn't found adds poping up somewhere at one time or another on their computer, ironically enough after looking at something else perhaps to buy or for a websearch on a product?

At this point in my life, I generally don't care what the government will find on me that they don't already know:laughing:

Every once in a while I'll get hooked on watching "the first 48" at night, where homocide detectives generally have the first two two days investigate a murder while the leads are "hot". Even though I may be dumb enough to sacrifice some personal liberties for the sake of using a smart phone for work, I'd like to think I'm smart enough to understand that if I was planning to do something nefarious, my personal phone would not be by my side. First, I'm amazed at the amount of people who put their own crap on social media websites, secondly, I am dumb enough not to understand how to completely eradicate something off my phone, because in general, even if you delete something, it's still there (just have to look harder) and thirdly, give the time and your phone in someone elses hands, the authorities can generally figure out where you've been.

What really scares the crap out of me is voice control home automated systems. It's one thing to have big brother watching you, it's another topic IMO when big brother is listening to you 24/7 in your own home. I am amazed at how many people want their HVAC systems connected to some kind of voice reconition home automated system. The other thing that scares me is what geofencing "could" be used for.

All that said, when I get older and hopefully get put behind a desk instead of having to be out on the road, I do see a basic flip phone in my future

 

[3930dave]

Microsoft Execs (of all people) found out the hard way..... never put anything into an email, that you would not want to see in court.

In the old days, there were wiretap laws. How well they were controlled and used is debatable, but at least there was some attempt to direct surveillance. Compared to that type of single-line fishing expedition, we are now in the age of bottom-dragging factory trawlers mining data.

Even if you buy the "This surveillance is only a problem if you are a criminal" argument, there can be consequences. Innocent people have lost a lot of time explaining why they were near a certain area due to Stingray data.

After a public crime in the USA, 3 different people in a household totally unrelated to the perpetrators happened to independently do an internet search for 3 common household items that the perpetrators used. Shortly afterwards, a heavy tac-team entered their house. Those innocent people survived, but those type of false-triggered encounters don't always end well.....

I've used this fictional example before, but it illustrates what kind of false-trouble you can get into in the zero-privacy electronic age....

I've had a really bad day at work, and decide to go for a walk alone, in the middle of a 100 acre-wood. Call my wife on my cell, and say "I'm ready to kill __________". She understands the context, and knows there is no actual threat. As a digital recording on a phone network, that could be a big problem for me (uttering a death-threat in Canada has significant legal implications).

All The World is a Stage, and We are Byte Players......

All your data is for sale, and it is worth a lot of money.

Despite promises to stop, US cell carriers are still selling your real-time phone location data – TechCrunch

^ Note well....... that is Real-Time location data.

You don't need to subscribe to the Tinfoil Hat of the Month Club to realize that there are distinct advantages for govts to have "rogue" private-sector companies doing this type of activity. Legally, the claim "We don't surveil our citizens" can stand.

A few years back I started a Generator Maintenance thread, mostly to get myself off the couch and get it done. Reading through this thread reminded me to update Signal Messenger on both our phones.

Security is not my day job, but better-informed people than I think well of it.

Signal Messenger - Wikipedia

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Times article, with some good examples of tracking....

Opinion | Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy - The New York Times

Rgds, D.

 

[Dftodd]

Nah, I've a metal building - no signal in or out. I refer to it as my "Faraday Cage".

I work in one of those. Unless the phone is connected to Wi-Fi, or I'm in the main office where the network extender is, I can't get a call out inside the building.

It's hit and miss with the overhead doors open out in the shop. Usually in my office between the shop bays, I won't know I missed a call till the voice-mail pops up.

It's a black hole with the doors closed.

 

[5030]

This will sound totally "Twilight Zone". I don't think turning yiur phone off will help.

Very true. Off or on, it will track you unless... You take it out back and put a slug in it.

 

[mikester]

At this point in my life, I generally don't care what the government will find on me that they don't already know:laughing:

The government watching you is the least of your problems. At least the government is supposed to follow rule of law.

Since you dont have a problem with information theft then why dont you photograph your drivers license, credit cards, social security number, list of passwords, and send me all your emails and text messages. Trust me, I take your security and privacy seriously. And dont forget to sign the EULA which gives me ownership of your data and rights to sell it to undisclosed third parties as I see fit. On second thought dont worry about the EULA, you already agreed to it when you turned on your phone.

 

[Sigarms]

The government watching you is the least of your problems. At least the government is supposed to follow rule of law.

Since you dont have a problem with information theft then why dont you photograph your drivers license, credit cards, social security number, list of passwords, and send me all your emails and text messages. Trust me, I take your security and privacy seriously. And dont forget to sign the EULA which gives me ownership of your data and rights to sell it to undisclosed third parties as I see fit. On second thought dont worry about the EULA, you already agreed to it when you turned on your phone.

You assume WAY TO much.

Where did I ever state I don't have a problem with inofmation theft? PLEASE quote me.

My whole point is that once you get a smart phone, you have already given up some aspects of privacy.

 

[Ken45101]

The Fourth (like the First) is all about Government actions. Private companies are not the Government though some of them act as if they were. You're concerned about the phone police.

However, when they turn the information over to the government and you get a notice " you were at or near Walmart two weeks ago and we now know someone has or might have a virus. You are ordered to quarantine for the next month, failure to obey will result in ...(choose your 1984 scenario)" At that point we have a Constitutional issue! I would not be the least surprised to see such actions around Election Day.

Ken