Technology @lemmy.world cyrano @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1w ago

Everyone knows your location

timsh.org Everyone knows your location

How I tracked myself down using leaked location data in the in-app ads, and what I found along the way.

25 comments

This post prompted me to finish setting up my Pi-Hole.
- I have zero social media apps or games on my phone but my pihole is still getting a hell of a workout. This is nuts.
  
  Also consider outside your home too - either permantly VPNing back through your home network, or (ie for Android) Tracker Control, which will block most ad / sdk / geo trackers that it knows about.
- I should set one up. Is it a huge pain in the ass?
  
  The Pi-Hole itself is very straightforward if you're cool with using docker - the example docker-compose.yaml on Docker Hub just worked for me. But getting your devices to use the Pi-Hole instead of their usual DNS server can be harder than it should be.
- I had to put my pihole on a brake for a while. I had it installed on a raspberry pi 3 and it destroyed 2 SD cards in a month. Now it just runs piVPN and all is well.
  
  Gonna reinstall next time I get a newer raspberry.
  
  Check out the overlay filesystem. I'm using it for one pi and have had the same SD card for years. I don't know if it'll work for pinole, but may get you thinking in a new direction.
  
  Turn off all the logging
  
  I just learned that san disk has a 10 year warranty. Today I made a claim for a 5 year old sdcard. Maybe worth a shot. (Just check with ypur manufacturer.)
Does turning off wifi, force stopping apps, clearing cache, and using a privacy friendly browser work? I been doing that for years and I don't see any intrusive/malicious/super specific targeted ads, heck, ads had been minimal and only appear while I use apps.
- It is about ads in apps and how they track you.
- Google play services betrays you.
  
  Use https://grapheneos.org/ and it sandboxes Google play for you, but ironically requires a Google Pixel phone.
  
  @ParetoOptimalDev @asunaspersonalasst That's the thing that put me off. I brain couldn't reconcile the idea of de-Googling by buying something from Google.
  
  Took delivery of a Pixel 9 last Thursday after 16 years of iPhones. Within an hour of delivery I had it on Graphene and after a few days of VEEEEERY steep learning curve I'm really enjoying using it.
  
  I have absolutely no idea how any of the sandboxing stuff works, and could stand to have fewer notifications warning me what the system is doing, but overall it's pretty straightforward.
- Preferring websites to apps when possible makes this approach more effective. If you use apps with ads in them, they will likely get sensitive information as described in the article.
  
  System wide ad blocking helps more. Private DNS is the easiest way; Mullvad provides a free option.
- No.
  
  The article is about your location being tracked, not about ads
  
  (through ads)
  
  Are you, being purposely misleading?
Can't object to what you (normally) can't see.
And I just remembered I'm not running NextDNS or PiHole on this phone.

I wonder if Android is as lax as iOS on the cross-app sharing.
I keep my phone in a Faraday bag because of intrusions like this.
The Facebook tracking when not installed on the iphone is strange as I thought only android is pre installed in the background not iOS.

25 comments