Items tagged with Location Tracking
The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been investigating the sale of users’ location data by wireless carriers for several years. This investigation now appears to be coming to a close. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai recently informed Congress that at least one wireless carrier has violated federal law and illegally sold users’ location data. Pai did not name specific companies or disclose which laws had been violated. His letter stated that, “Accordingly, in the coming days, I intend to circulate to my fellow Commissioners for their consideration one or more Notice(s) of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in connection with the apparent violation(s).” The...
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iPhone 11 Apple was under fire this past week for tracking iPhone 11 users’ locations even when that setting was disabled. They have now promised that an update is on its way. iOS 13.3 will likely be released next week and contain a fix for unwanted location tracking. Security researcher Brian Krebs or “KrebsOnSecurity” recently discovered that Apple’s range of iPhone 11 devices will occasionally report a user’s location. These intermittent pings occur even if a user has diabled location tracking. A video captured the odd behavior. Apple originally responded that this was “expected behavior” and refused to offer any further details. Apple then “came...
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Does Google track your location? A study by the Associated Press and Princeton University discovered that some Google services store your location regardless of your privacy settings. It is believed that over 2 million Android users are affected by this issue. Google claims that if users turn off their “Location History”, it will no longer store the places the users have been. The AP and Princeton University insist that some Google apps store time-stamped locations, even if the user has disabled “Location History”. Some of these exceptions make sense, but others seem illogical. On one hand, Google will look up your location to provide an accurate weather update. On the...
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Grab your tin hat: your cellphone might be giving away your location to spy agencies and sophisticated gangs even as you read this. The Washington Post is reporting that certain companies are selling technology that gives governments and criminals tracking capabilities similar to what the NSA is believed to have. Image Credit: sNowFleikuN at deviantART CC-BY-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons The tracking systems are believed to use data from mobile carriers, though it’s not clear how they’re accessing that presumably protected data. The report suggests that there are potentially dozens of organizations that have already bought the technology, including governments of other countries who have...
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