These 4 services track you through your smartphone

While smartphones give us the ability to message family and friends, browse the web, and play games, there is another price you may have to pay besides only purchasing the device. These four services can track you through your smartphone, uncovering your whereabouts, decoding your conversations, and requesting information about you.

The state:

After former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, Edward Snowden revealed information about the agency’s top secret surveillance programs, including PRISM, many people view the NSA as villains. And for those people, they have all the right to worry as our smartphones give away our location.

When your device searches for Wi-Fi access, it regularly sends out data, including your Media Access Control (MAC) address, a personal identifier that can be used to determine when you enter and leave a building. Turning off your Wi-Fi won’t solve the problem either, as your smartphone will attempt to connect with cell towers (including fake 2G towers used by the NSA) and information will be stored by your network provider.

State security services can also request such information, even outside of the United States (US), thanks to the “Snooper’s Charter,” which stores Internet and call data for at least 12 months in smartphones around the United Kingdom (UK).

The police:

The police have the ability to trace your location in either real-time or after the event (depending on the circumstances). Cellular device location data is a useful tool that police officers use to prove a suspect was in the area of the crime when it occurred.

Outside of tracing smartphone locations using cell towers, law enforcers can also act as “middle men” between mobile phones and service providers’ towers. The smartphone is tracked via its International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a unique 15-digit identifier found on all devices that connect to networks, or Electronic Serial Number (ESN). And these IMSI-catchers can be fitted to cars, airplanes, and helicopters.

The law regarding this matter is never black and white, especially when these types of cases make it to court. Individual states determine whether cell site location data is permissible without a warrant. In states like Illinois, New Jersey, and Indiana, a warrant is needed for real-time tracking but not retroactive inspections. In states such as California, Utah, and Montana, police are required to get a warrant for both types of monitoring.

And states like Washington, Arkansas, New Mexico, Alaska, Wisconsin, and Idaho, haven’t even made binding decisions regarding cellular location data surveillance. 

Google Maps:

While many of us use Google Maps to save time and money, there is a downfall to location-based data continuously being sent out and collected. Since July 2015, when Google became aware of this, the company since changed the Location History folder to Your Timeline, allowing you to check where you’ve been the last few days.

If you’ve lost your smartphone and your device is off or Find My iPhone is disabled, you can check your Timeline online to determine your phone’s last known location.

Some may be wary about Google knowing so much about them – where you walk, which places you frequent, and where you live and work. The app lets you delete data from specific days or even individual points on the map without getting rid of all other encounters.

You also have the option to order the app not to collate your information. On iOS, you simply open the app, go to Settings > Privacy > Location > Location History, and then tick Do Not Store. On Android, the method is the same for the most part, but requires you to further disable the ability for your entire Google account or specifically on one or more devices.

At the same time, denying the app access to your location does completely defeat the point of it.

Shops and malls:

If you’re at a shop, mall, or department store, and you consider buying a shirt, but then wander away, your phone picks that up and might send you a 10% off coupon, urging you to purchase it. Such discounts are offered at ransom based on personal information, or more specifically Wi-Fi analytics. 

This means a retailer can track its customers around the store, understanding how their clientele circulate in order to further push them to make decisions about their purchases. In a nutshell, your phone is making up your mind for you.

More than 90% of American consumers use coupons each year, fueled by impulse buying, which generates approximately $4 billion in sales each year in just America.

To save your data usage, your smartphone will send off signals to automatically connect to free Wi-Fi. Retailers use beacons located around the stores to determine your whereabouts and send you those offers. Fortunately, consumers have the option to opt out by simply turning off Wi-Fi.

As with many devices, there are pros and cons to your smartphone, and being traceable may not be so beneficial. But on the other side of things, your device can act as a GPS, help police, and offer great discounts at your favorite stores. So it’s up to you to decide: do the pros outweigh being tracked?

Source: MakeUseOf