An amazing bit of digital detective work here. Seems like Linux mobile is your only off ramp from being exhaustively tracked
All HTTP requests include your ip address, you don’t “consent” to giving it to anybody. You can geolocate somebody based on ip address but it won’t be very accurate
True, it’s storing the IP address that is the issue.
Storing it and associating it with all the other identifying information collected.
Use a VPN. Problem solved.
This problem solved, but whenever you change your network or IP and then periodically, your phone will report to Firebase, so you can receive push notifications.
You can block those with software that simulates a local VPN with a filter, but you won’t get any more push notifications. Now push notifications are not just the ones you see. Some apps use invisible ones to get infos they need to work.
But when Firebase gets that network/IP change report, what information does it get? Because if it only gets the public IP address, the reported IP will still be the VPN one, not the real one, right? So, if that were the only information reported to Firebase, wouldn’t you still be protected? Does Firebase block requests when you’re using a VPN (this could be detected, for example, if certain aspects of the network have changed but the IP hasn’t)? Is that what you mean with not getting push notifications when simulating a local IP with filters?
PS: From my research, the WiFi’s SSID can also be used to track someone’s whereabouts, but depending on where you are and how many networks have used the same SSID, it may work work well or badly. You can see that by going to https://wigle.net/ (which is a database on WiFi networks with some publicly-available information), go to the map, type in the SSID field, and click “Filter”. I’m not sure if Firebase gets that info in the network reports, but I find it likely that it does.
It gets your unique tracking ID, so it knows you’re the same person now with different IP. If you use apps that store location data in firebase (eg. find my device, fitness trackers, emergency alert apps) it will upload your GPS location and maybe nearby wifi names, if you set it to be extra precise.
Make sure you disable or properly configure webrtc. Even with a VPN it will leak your true IP address.
Check here.
Latitude and Longitude are in there. As is screen brightness. He does acknowledge that he is on Wi-Fi, but that’s still super suspicious
Not the magic bullet people think they are. Oh, and you can’t turn it off, so you’ll have to take the loss in network speed on absolutely everything. And better know how to configure each device so it doesn’t go ahead and check leak your IP anyways, which also restricts choice of devices you use. Cause remember, if any device on your network ever connects to the net without the VPN, then your anonymity just went out the window.
That VPN provider will then know ALL the connections you make. Almost worse than just using the Internet normally.
That’s an uninformed statement.
You get to pick your provider. So pick one that you trust.
It’s FAR better than without as your ISP is probably selling your traffic to third parties or at least monitoring it. Some VPNs don’t.
it’s been known for a long time that there is enough identifiable information in a “normal” person’s internet usage to identify exactly who and where you are and what you are likely doing just from metadata analysis and public domain information
question is, how is this being abused
Even with Linux it wouldn’t be that safe, if apps were doing this crap.
We just have to stop using the internet at this point
You’d want to be using only Linux apps that weren’t recording and reporting everything. Much easier to get in Linux than Apple/android
You know the towers log data too, right? And that websites themselves can track you regardless of what OS you use, right?
Privacy is good, but stop with this “Linux is a magic weapon” BS.
Separate dongle for internet using a hotspot can help. No system is perfect but Linux phone is an excellent first step
You miss my meaning. All the servers that your info passes through, all the cell towers, etc, can and in many cases do track you(even as just routine loggings). Thinking that running anything makes you more secure while connecting to a giant public network is naive.
Is there any straightforward way of stopping this besides dropping off the grid?
Using firefox in strict mode with ublock origin, cookie auto-delete, and a VPN to change your IP every now and then should stop location tracking and cross-site tracking. Sites will still know you’ve visited them and what pages you’ve been to in that session, but that is impossible to stop.
The main thing is don’t use apps, they can collect tons of data and tie it directly to your physical device, and run in the background while not actively using it.
Using a web browser is really the safest option I can think of because you have control over almost everything.
Route all or traffic through tor. Never log into anything. Never use the same identity twice. Ahh and live in a hut in the woods never going to shops or cities that have security cameras.
…where are chains allowed to abuse security camera footage for ad tracking?
Bunnings in Australia until very recently and u have basically 0 protections in the states.
I imagine an ad blocker could prevent this data going out, unless the hosts were generic and the game/app simply won’t work without allowing those connections. I’ve never seen an app be [obviously] broken from my ad blocker but I am interested in running a similar experiment to see just how much data is going out.
Use a custom DNS and/or hosts file. You can cut them off the grid by blocking data upload to SSP. Don’t install many apps, for games that can be played offline, play them offline. EDIT: AdGuard DNS doesn’t block the 1st URL (o.isx…) in the page. 2nd URL is blocked.
That’s crazy. As it’s (almost) impossible to prevent those data to be sent from the phone, would it be possible to make the data useless ? For instance by sending loads of fake json payloads for some ids ? Then enjoy my data which says at the same time that I’m in Vancouver, Lisbon, Paris, on my low cost and super expensive phone, with volume at max and zero,… Not possible I guess ?
Wonder how the app sent geolocation with Location Services disabled.
It may have estimated location data with IP from Wi-Fi. Location Services turns on GPS but that is not the only way of getting location.
Surprising that this data never heard gets leaked. It’s always my social security number
It’s in a perpetual state of leakage in a sence that it’s a trade item that gets sold between different companies. You can’t leak that, really.
No hacker group ever got their hands on this data?
Every hacker group or indeed a random guy, can get and routinely gets this data for very cheap. It’s not news because its the norm.
