The post below is not from me, but it was posted on Android when people
(rightly so) complained that Google made Precise Location Services the
default in Android 15.
Most people don't have a clue how to turn it off, so, for them, it's
permanent Google spyware - which - for idiots - it is - because they can't
figure out how to turn it off (which is why Google did it).
But what's interesting about this post for you is what it says about Apple.
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https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=55113&group=comp.mobile.android#55113>
====< post is below in its entirety >====
I think that with Google you have to assume that if they can spy,
they will. And they will lie about it. It's what they do. They didn't make
Android out of sheer generosity. It's part of their "all spying, all the time"
business model.
Cellphones these days are semi-kiosk devices, not intended to be
controlled. I installed a program to give me more control. I've forgotten
the name now. (Netguard, maybe?) The list of formerly invisible Android
processes that it showed me was endless, but most of them have
meaningless names. Only an Android developer could make sense of it.
You should assume that if your phone is powered on then you're
wearing a tracking collar. Whether it's phone towers or satellite GPS,
they're tracking your movements. If using a cellphone is part of your
lifestyle (you leave it powered on, send and receive text messages, etc)
then you're the same as the wild animals with radio collars that biologists
track. You can't have cellphone lifestyle and privacy.
Do you remember the "wifi slurping" scandal several years back?
Google was picking up and storing any tidbits they could get from
unencrypted wifi as their streetview vans drove around. Most wifi
back then was unencrypted. Google heartily denied it, until the specific
software was found that they wrote to do the job! If I remember correctly,
I think the software developer came forward.
It seems odd that Google would bother to collect random tidbits
from specific houses, but the magic of surveillance is in the data
crunching. Every tiny bit of data they can get just adds to the
data they can analyze.
Baldfaced lying is routine with tech companies. They
don't face any real punishment for lying, stealing and spying. Apple
are no better than Google. They've been caught spying multiple times.
Some years ago there was a California journalist who found precise
location data going back several weeks, stored in a plain text
file on his iPhone. He used the data to create a map, to show how
easy it is to track a person's life. Apple also lies about the iPhone
privacy settings:
https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-analytics-tracking-even-when-off-app-store-1849757558 The only difference is that most people using iPhones believe that
Apple is a special angel created by Lord Jobs and they actually want
to be tracked by their phone. It makes them feel safe.
Interesting post about Apple spying on its customers