Is there any way to mitigate the amount of data collected?
If I turn GPS off can they still track my steps?
One thing that I notice frequently is discussing some topic with my wife and then finding an AD related to the topic on Instagram, LinkedIn, and whatnot. Could be a coincidence but I not sure any more.
In the background, the phone uses its gyro sensors so it can tell what you are doing: walking, running, getting into a car/sitting down, getting out/up, ...
The unsettling part is that location logging continues to work with the phone off (saw an admittedtly obscure YouTube video on that which I can't seem to dig up again).
Like the Kindle, airplane mode also doesn't stop data from being transmitted to the overlords. It merely delays it from somewhat real-time to whenever you go online again.
If at any point this actually became a reality the OS would start treating mag access as needing location permissions.
Location services doesn't disable bluetooth. If you're in a dense area, your local stores may have bluetooth beacons which will report location hits against your bluetooth ID, which may be tied to you through applications you install.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluet...
https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-cell-carriers-selling-acces...
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if baseband processors eventually start logging and asynchronously sending gps data to the cell carriers behind the operating system’s back, so you should also keep it in a mylar sack.
Similarly the accelerometer can gather all sorts of information (passwords, text typed on the keyboard, are you driving, flying, walking, etc), so you’ll probably eventually need to keep the phone in a drawer to avoid leaking that information. Similarly for the microphone (some surveillance libraries already snoop sounds in various primitive ways).
To recap: keep it off the network in a stationary, electromagnetically shielded, sound proof box. That’s simple enough, and from there you can use it as normal.
There are specific bits of malware that make the phone appear to be off when it is in fact powered on. Such malware typically requires root access or an exploit, and is the realm of shady governments not advertiser's. But if you don't have that malware, you can't be tracked when the phone is off.
It would be fun to see if you could get a modern phone to shut up for even five seconds when powered on.
I’m very skeptical about this. I’d be interested to know how a phone could track location info while powered off.
If it were true I feel confident that information would have leaked by now.
Yeah, there's no way for Facebook to be actively listening to conversations on millions of phones connected to private home networks without someone noticing. And that's not even addressing that someone currently or formerly working at Facebook would just blow the whistle at some point.
The problem with this conspiracy theory is that people just don't care about numbers and facts. They usually have an anecdote ("I was talking about cheese and hour later I got an ad for cheese") and that removes any need for hard evidence. Hard evidence that shouldn't be that hard to collect considering you own both the device and the network on which this supposed listening is happening on.
Spoiler: it actually does not happen. As the other person commented, snooping like this in scale would leak.
Where?
Edit: since you're asking, proof could be multiple testimonials from ex-engineers working on the project or a peer-reviewed article in a serious journal. Until that this is in the same bin with healing crystals and chemtrails.
Whistleblowers never prosper, at least in the US. Too many examples, take Stingray for a less controversial one. What was the result? Crickets. Exactly what would be the incentive for those engineers?
Myself, I'm a Bayesian and I grew up in a communist country, which means I start from "of course everyone is spying on me, all the time" and require strong evidence to change my mind.
You're expecting 100% of the engineers at Facebook (or previously at Facebook) that know about this to comply with the NDA. And history shows that 100% of Facebook employees will not keep quiet about Facebook doing bad/illegal things.
Besides that just don't install any apps you don't need. Stick to open source software, install a custom ROM on your phone, don't use Google location services, etc.
The iOS counterpart blocks location requests quietly when the app is in the background and allows them when the app is in the foreground.
One particular day I remember specifically because had a long call with friend who lives in some other city. We talked about meeting sometime in future, dating, job situation and travelling to Canada/Europe.
With in hours I received promotional email about "travelling to the city my friend lives in". Dating site AD. Looking for Job and article about how to travel move to Canada/Europe.
Fun day.
People only think about Facebook, but there are other AdTech companies as well which do not get scrutinised as much.