[HN Gopher] Comparing trips between cellphone towers and Google ... ___________________________________________________________________ Comparing trips between cellphone towers and Google timeline (GPS) Author : leoferres Score : 47 points Date : 2021-05-20 13:44 UTC (9 hours ago) (HTM) web link (leoferres.info) (TXT) w3m dump (leoferres.info) | antman wrote: | Two disclaimers: Worked telco, I am in Europe and that data is | erased afterwards due to GDPR. | | So in the telco in the old days one could use bayesian and | accross different days data and pretty accurately know where | people are. And it wasn't that useful. Identifying through | combination of phone, phone contract, landline, wifi over | landline which people were in the same household woukd be useful | apparently easier but in reality a total mess in terms of edge | cases. | alias_neo wrote: | So your phone provider knows which streets you might have walked | down, Google knows whose shoulders you might have bumped into. | Spooky23 wrote: | Correct, until you call 911. The PSAP can either get GPS or | have the phone pinged to get it. | brokenkebab wrote: | >The PSAP can either get GPS or have the phone pinged to get | it. | | Could you elaborate? Get GPS how? | gene91 wrote: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1 | | Many phones manufactured after 2005 have GPS receivers | built in. When the cellular phone detects that the user is | placing an emergency call, it begins to transmit its | location to a secure server, from which the PSAP can | retrieve it. Cellphone manufacturers may program the phone | to automatically enable GPS functionality (if disabled) | when an emergency call is placed, so that it may transmit | its location. | Spooky23 wrote: | Phones go into an emergency mode where they transmit the | gps location. The accuracy depends on factors including | length of call iirc. | | I believe they can then call the carrier to ping the phone | to report location. Typically that happens if the | dispatcher has reason to believe there is a emergency | situation and the call drops. | | I _think_ the phone will notify you of this. At least it | did many years ago when I called 911 for a car accident on | the highway. | leoferres wrote: | Yes, telcos have an error of a few km. Google tells me, from | another country, where _exactly_ I came from, where _exactly_ I | went, and how (walking, driving, ...) | beauzero wrote: | One of the hardest problems, a few years back, to solve was | getting data to determine which traffic lane you were in. It | was to provide targeted ads on billboards, that through | reflection, could show different ads to people in different | lanes based on "external" searches such as browsing patterns. | To my knowledge the problem was not solvable using wireless | telco data. | Judgmentality wrote: | I've got a bunch of the privacy stuff on my Android phone, | and even when I use Google Maps while driving I'll ask | "where's the nearest grocery store" and it will regularly | think I'm hundreds of miles from where I am. I can't even | figure out why. It once thought I was in the ocean. | | To be clear, when I am asking this, the phone has access to | my location data and everything else it asks for. | titzer wrote: | The accelerometer in most phones is accurate enough to detect | individual footsteps. Phones also include a barometer that is | sensitive enough to detect which floor of a building you are | on. With dead reckoning based on accelerometers, calibrated | by GPS, compass, WiFi, and barometric data, people can be | located to within centimeters. Activity detection, mode of | transport--ha, child's play! | | If you run Android, turn off "high location accuracy". It | uses all of these features. | leoferres wrote: | :) I really don't care that Google knows what I'm doing. | What I do find amazing is that people are usually afraid of | telcos for tracking, when it's more like you have to be | afraid of Google and apps like Candy Crush... | titzer wrote: | You realize that with a NSL the US government can compel | Google to disclose information on anyone and that the | contents of NSLs are completely secret, right? Oh yeah, | and Google operates globally and no one really knows what | arrangements they have with the various governments | around the world. | rurban wrote: | Or even worse, arrangements with criminal and terrorist | organizations, committing warcrimes all over. They now | love to shoot you down with a drone based on Android High | Accuracy Location Tracking, without any due process. They | also love to block free travel without due process. It's | called freedom (of civil rights, to block and terminate). ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-05-20 23:02 UTC)