Android Users Need To Delete Google Maps and Google Play If They Don't Want Their Locations Tracked (theregister.co.uk) 395
Kieren McCarthy, reporting for The Register: Google, it seems, is very, very interested in knowing where you are at all times. Users have reported battery life issues with the latest Android build, with many pointing the finger at Google Play -- Google's app store -- and its persistent, almost obsessive need to check where you are. Amid complaints that Google Play is always switching on GPS, it appears Google has made it impossible to prevent the app store from tracking your whereabouts unless you completely kill off location tracking for all applications. You can try to deny Google Play access to your handheld's location by opening the Settings app and digging through Apps -> Google Play Store -> Permissions, and flipping the switch for "location." But you'll be told you can't just shut out Google Play services: you have to switch off location services for all apps if you want to block the store from knowing your whereabouts. It's all or nothing, which isn't particularly nice. This is because Google Play services pass on your location to installed apps via an API. The store also sends your whereabouts to Google to process. Google doesn't want you to turn this off.
Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Funny)
big brother was always the cool guy that got us porn, beer and cigs.... now little sister was the freaking rat! I now call all surveillance Little Sister.
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's doubleplus don't be evil.
Didn't Sergei grow up in the Moscow? He's built a panopticon that would make Stalin drool.
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
but how to you feel if that info was passed to the FBI / CIA / NSA / ETC?
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They can legally (or illegally) get it anyway. You either live on grid or off. Trying to achieve one-foot-in-one-foot-out is an exercise in futility.
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:4, Insightful)
Always love these tone-deaf comments. Since rape is inevitable, you might as well enjoy it.
Re: (Score:3)
bleating about the "invasion" of privacy (honestly, it's 2016, it's not an invasion anymore)
If the invasion is over, is it now an occupation?
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Funny)
but how to you feel if that info was passed to the FBI / CIA / NSA / ETC?
As long as the phone has a headphone jack, he's okay with it.
Re: (Score:3)
The headphone was how the tin foil hat was connected.
Darn it! FOILED again!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If I actually had a need to suppress my whereabouts, just having a cell phone that is paid with a credit card pretty much defeats that.
"paid with a credit card"? It is to laugh.
Try "purchased and recharged with cash, while wearing a ski mask and having walked to (then returning from) the convenience store from a car with its license plates covered and parked away from traffic cameras (if you can find such a place within walking distance of a convenience store)."
And leave the phone off except when making a
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I work from home and live near a ski resort, which makes it very easy for me to go skiing on a regular basis during the winter. So, my typical winter workday is to start work at 6, work until 8:45 then drive to the resort, arriving right at 9 when the lifts open, ski for a couple of hours, then back home to work until 5 or so, with a break for lunch.
I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour. I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. The rest of the time, I'm off skiing.
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Informative)
I guess nobody noticed that maps.google.com now goes to www.google.com/maps, which means you have to give the entire site permission to access your location to let it use your location.
Why do all the suckers put up with this. (Score:3)
I find this absolutely reprehensible. I truly wonder why people put up with this. It's one thing to not care that google tracks you. I don't mind. But I'd be absolutely incensed if I had no way to prevent it and I'm locked into a 2 year contract with no way to have a usable phone and usable maps without granting google this prying eye. One of my kids has a phone which doesn't even allow google play to be turned off (the phone relies on it). Each week we notice data charges when he has used no data. Whe
Re:Why do all the suckers put up with this. (Score:4, Insightful)
with no way to have a usable phone and usable maps
Oh? So you want to use a company's services and all they provide without giving back? There are plenty of usable maps out there. There are plenty of phones on the market which don't have Google Services (which 1bn Chinese people don't even have access to).
You can't have it all ways.
Re: (Score:3)
with no way to have a usable phone and usable maps without granting google this prying eye
Install OSMAnd~ from F-Droid. Send the authors a donation (that way they get all of it, Google doesn't get a cut as they would if you bought it from the Play store). It does offline maps and offline routing, and generally has much better map data than Google Maps (amusingly, this was even true last time I visited Google and walked around outside the office that contains the HQ of the Google Map steam). OpenStreetMap has my house labelled (no, I didn't add it), Google Maps doesn't even think that the road
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
And yet this is ok because it's Google.
Windows 10 includes telemetry but that is spyware!
Why do people write crap like this? Reading through the comments, it appears this feature is pretty well hated - which means people like it about as much as they like W10. Which is not much at all.
Simple solutions.. (Score:3)
The power button still exists (unless apple deems it is not necessary in the next iphone).
BTW, apple and MS location track as much as they can too.
Re: (Score:2)
I prefer to be tracked.
So if I ever DON'T want to be tracked, I just leave the phone at home and commit my crimes. Law enforcement is so lazy they won't even think about actual detective work any more, they just find out who's phone was in the area.
Re: (Score:2)
More critically what we need are clear lines into who has access to that data and for what purposes. Google telling me that the drive into work is 10 minutes longer due to an accident is handy. Google noting I went fishing instead of work is a little more creepy. Telling my my boss is worse. Letting gov have the data without warrant is worse still.
Re: (Score:2)
Clarification (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
If your phone's GPS is on, then it tracks where you are, even if you told the app not to track your location.
Need a law preventing non-essential privacy invasions from being standard, let alone not cancelable.
Every single should have to request permission from the phone's OS to get any information, and if the phone says no, the app can't get that information AND must still be able to do everything it can do without that information.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it still gathers your location periodically. It can use Wifi, Bluetooth, and cell towers to get your approximate location. It tell you as much on one of the screens you clicked past when you setup the phone.
Re: (Score:3)
GPS is one of three ways "location services" work. It also uses Wi-Fi and cellular.
Re:Clarification (Score:5, Informative)
The title of the submission doesn't match the summary. Summary states this can be defeated by turning off all location services (same as the iPhone [buzzfeed.com]). You don't have to delete Maps and Play as the title states. This being Android, if enough people are upset about it, someone will create a widget which lets you change the setting with a single tap whenever you want.
I wrestled with it a few years back (when I finally got a phone whose battery would last all day even with GPS on), and eventually decided to leave GPS on all the time. Yes Google uses it to track me, but it's one of those things where you give up a little bit of your privacy (location) in exchange for useful services (real-time traffic updates). It's kinda like bittorrent. Nobody wants to seed because it sucks up your bandwidth, but without seeders the service stops working. People who expect real-time traffic while leaving their GPS off are essentially leechers. And I decided considering how heavily I use real-time traffic, it was my civic duty to leave the GPS on.
Also, one of the bugs I've encountered in Marshmallow is that sometimes battery life plummets with the battery use monitor saying it's the Android system which is consuming it. I eventually figured out this was linked to location services somehow getting "stuck" on in Google Play. The fix is to uninstall the updates for Google Play Services [orduh.com], then allow Android to re-update it. I wonder if that's the same bug causing the battery drain reported in Nougat in TFA.
Re: (Score:3)
I have location tracking turned off unless I'm actually using Google Maps. It's not hard it's a switch on my notification page. It's a power drain I don't need constantly running just like WIFI that's never on except when I'm at home. It's trivial, even my very non-technical oriented wife knows how.
Re: (Score:2)
The GPS receiver isn't on when no app is using it, even if you enabled it. The issue is that the app store uses GPS often to get your location and sends the location to Google, and you can't disable that without disabling location services altogether.
Are you sure about that? Because I just did it on my Android 6 phone...
Uhm.... article link? (Score:2)
Am I missing something, or there's no link to the actual article?
I thought /. had editors ...
Re: (Score:2)
I see it. I just used it. It's in parentheses right after the title.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, yes there is that link, but odd that all other stories in the page include links in the summary.
It'd be nice to have some sort of consistency, don't you think?
Re: (Score:2)
The consistency is that every article that goes outside of Slashdot has that little green link next to the title. Links inside the summary are just a bonus, especially if it's a link to an alternate copy of the story where the primary one may be paywalled/ad-block-blocked.
google play was already denied gps on my phone (Score:2)
I followed the instructions to turn off google play's permission to use my location, but this was already turned off. Am I missing something? The article only says the "latest Android build".
Re:google play was already denied gps on my phone (Score:4, Insightful)
I followed the instructions to turn off google play's permission to use my location, but this was already turned off. Am I missing something? The article only says the "latest Android build".
Are you positive that "Location" wasn't already turned off in Settings when you went to look at Google Play Services permissions? On my phone (6.0.1), if Location is turned on and I try to set Google Play Services location permission to "off", I get a popup informing me that Google Play Services is the source of location services for all other applications, and that if I want to deny location privileges to Google Play, I have to turn off Location (in Settings). If Location is turned off, the location permission is off in Google Play Services.
Just the beginning (Score:5, Insightful)
It won't be long before they start selling intrusive ads based on location, time of day, etc. It's around lunch time and you're walking on the street? Your phone buzzes to recommend a restaurant for you. That kind of advertisement could be sold to restaurants based on location, time of day, implied salary, whether you frequent a competitor, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
How long do you think that would last? I can barely tolerate ads on a web browser. Something that buzzes me trying to recommend a restaurant would result in me entering to tell the proprietor what a piece of shit I considered him and how there would be icicles in Hell before I'd ever eat in that establishment. That kind of annoying advertising only works if people tolerate it.
Re: (Score:2)
If it's a choice between giving up their phones and tolerating intrusive daily ads that are derived from spying on you, most people will pick the phone without hesitation.
Re: (Score:2)
It won't be long before they start selling intrusive ads based on location, time of day, etc.
How about you complain about that when it happens? Or maybe you don't have enough real problems in your life that you are imagining possible problems and fretting over those? Shit, what if they start sending your p0rnographic photos when they detect your mom visiting?
I mean really, if it happens, and you don't like it, get a different phone that doesn't have that behavior. Problem solved.
Also, I'm pretty sure they have already developed software that can detect the time of day, so that ship has sailed.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not complaining, just pointing out the logical progression of what a Big Data company that makes money on advertising will do once it knows your position 24 hours a day. I could see the writing on the wall several years ago so just stopped carrying a cell phone. It's actually quite pleasant. I can have a conversation with someone without checking my phone every 10 seconds, no one has the expectation that they can get a hold of me 24/7 (and none of the ensuing drama when they can't), I don't have to w
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Just the beginning (Score:3)
Uh, if you frequent McDonalds frequently you're probably at risk of a heart attack regardless of what your phone is doing.
Usage Cost (Score:2)
The introductory text, above, suggests that the Google Store will send your location data to Google, *without giving you the choice*. Now, if it also does this without explicitly telling you, without explicitly asking you to acknowledge and agree, then what happens if your monthly data usage cap is exceeded thanks to this
And people complain about Windows 10? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why I've said over and over... Anyone who complains about Windows 10 thinking that it is the "big bad" when it comes to privacy simply hasn't been paying attention...
That doesn't make Windows 10 spying all good, it just puts it into the same league as Apple and Google...
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly.
Telemetry is the new model.
Re:And people complain about Windows 10? (Score:5, Informative)
What I hate most about this is that they don't give you the option to opt out of spying by paying some money. I'd gladly do it. Both on Android and on Windows. But. again, neither one gives you that option.
Amazon got it right with the Kindle: You can have it cheaper with ads or you can pay some more and have no ads
Re:And people complain about Windows 10? (Score:4, Insightful)
Street Traffic (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you ever wondered how Google Maps has near-real-time display of traffic maps on surface streets that don't have monitoring equipment set up by the DOT? *THIS* is exactly how they do it. They track the relative speed and location of smart phones traveling down various streets to figure out current traffic patterns. This is simply another case of giving up a piece of privacy for a free service in return. Love it or hate it, that's how this shit works.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, this is a use case (presuming anonymized data points are used) which argues FOR the use of persistent telemetry. State DOTs pay tens of millions of dollars a year to collect a tiny fraction of this data for traffic studies. All the while, we sit on an amazingly complete set of data which, though crowdsourced traffic mapping, has become a reality.
Of all the seemingly infinite ways this data can be misused, traffic and route mapping data falls outside of the "always bad" mantra.
Use Apple Maps and no one will find you (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
That data was stored only locally. And an update reduced the size of the local cache significantly.
Also Apple is going to great lengths to keep data they collect locally on the phone or anonymize as much of the data that needs to be sent back to its servers, instead if selling it to the highest bidder like Google.
Seems A Little Alarmist (Score:2)
Google Play Services claims to provide the location API for all apps, so of course if you turn off location permissions for Play you're going to turn it off for all apps. And if Maps is constantly reporting my position to Mother Google, why is it always pestering me to turn on location tracking?
Personally, I have never been prompted by my phone to download an app just because of my location. Maybe that's because I don't leave Play (or Maps either) running in the background.
Android 6 (Score:2)
Finally allows me to select permissions for apps and services. Sure it'll bitch and yell "The sky will fall" but it hasn't.
Google Play location services have been disabled on my phone for awhile already.
Google Play & Location (Score:2)
I suspect we can blame the entertainment mafiaa for this one - Google Play sells movies and TV and the studios want to control access by geo-location to content.
Play Permissions (Score:3)
You can try to deny Google Play access to your handheld's location by opening the Settings app and digging through Apps -> Google Play Store -> Permissions, and flipping the switch for "location." But you'll be told you can't just shut out Google Play services: you have to switch off location services for all apps if you want to block the store from knowing your whereabouts.
Is this something new in Nougat? (Does anyone even run Nougat on anything yet?)
I'm on Marshmallow (6.0.1), and I can turn off location permissions for the Google Play Store, and wasn't "told" anything when I did. Everything else works just fine. I can even turn on location for games or other apps, and they still work, and Google Play still doesn't have access to location. So I'm not sure what the summary is talking about, here.
Idiot 'security researcher' (Score:5, Informative)
Didn't this used to be a tech site? (Score:5, Informative)
There's a lot of misunderstanding here of how location and tracking on Android actually works.
First of all, google play store has nothing to do with it. It's google play services that provides location services and implements location tracking in Android. That's the service that is used to retrieve AGPS data from the net, to correlate nearby wifi and mobile masts with lists held on google's servers to give location without GPS, and yes to provide tracking data on your location to google. Setting the location mode to "GPS Only" or similar is supposed to disable much of the tracking, but I'm not sure how much I'd trust that.
Play services is a pretty core component of Android, and an awful lot of things will cease to function if you manage to remove it. You can block play services from accessing your location using 3rd party tools like XPrivacy, but location for most apps will cease to function without a complex set of workarounds.
If you genuinely don't want your Android phone calling home with your location while still being able to use GPS, you need:
Thanks google...
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you think iOS isn't phoning home with your location, I have a bridge to sell you. Same goes for ANY phone, since of course the carriers can detect your location from cell towers anyway (and they are, they just are not monetizing it as well as Google).
Re: (Score:2)
So do you have any evidence that iOS is "phoning home your location" once you disable the necessary settings? iOS has three settings for GPS for individual apps -- Never, While Using, and Always.
Re: (Score:2)
If I put my phone in airplane mode, even carriers can find my location. If I switch on, I am using their towers to receive calls, so I have to tell the location.
If your phone is in airplane mode, the radio is off. They can't know your location.
But anyway, no. A provider can know your location, but they don't need to know your location for the service to work. Your device connects to the nearest tower, or the tower w/ the strongest signal. The tower doesn't need to know your location for that to happen. And even if they did, they don't need to TRACK your location for the service to work (yes, carriers are tracking your location, all of them, all the time).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
From TFSummary, you cannot turn off tracking for Google Play or Google Maps. Google always knows where you are, and offers that information to installed apps.
"Don't be evil" is so last-decade. According to Larry Page, the "Don't be evil" culture prohibited conflicts of interest, and required objectivity and an absence of bias. This does not apply to Alphabet. https://sputniknews.com/us/201... [sputniknews.com]
Re: This explains it all (Score:3)
If in doubt just install Google Maps...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
To be obnoxious, I've never actually given any app my location on my phone. And I use Google Maps often enough. But rather than using it for navigation, I use it for -- you'll never guess -- looking at maps. No facepalm needed!
Well actually it's still useful... (Score:2)
Granted being able to see where you are on the map is half of the usefulness.
But just being able to dynamically sort through maps at any zoom level has a lot of value. When I'm in a city I can look at cross-streets and see where I am, then use the map to navigate by just being aware of what upcoming streets (and the few streets before that) are named so I know where to turn...
But I agree it stinks you can't tell some other application to keep away from location data without disabling map location also.
Re: (Score:2)
There are non-google app stores.
Re: (Score:3)
And they are useless, and frequently riddled with malware. I use Google services because they have a value to me. Samsung services (for instance) do not.
I don't want carob instead of chocolate just to "prove a point". I bought an Android phone because I prefer it to Apple's walled garden, and have more freedom to use my hardware as I choose.
Re: (Score:2)
How about using Fake GPS location spoofer? Is it able to send fake coordinates to Google Play, too?
I'm sure a GPS location spoofer, if such a thing exists, is highly illegal and would get you in big trouble to use it. GPS signals are on a licensed part of the spectrum, and interfering with those frequencies can cause not just your GPS device to fail, but possibly others around you. GPS is used in in some life or death applications, such as air navigation, so I imagine the feds would take this kind of spoofing very, very seriously.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure a GPS location spoofer, if such a thing exists, is highly illegal and would get you in big trouble to use it. GPS signals are on a licensed part of the spectrum, and interfering with those frequencies can cause not just your GPS device to fail, but possibly others around you. GPS is used in in some life or death applications, such as air navigation, so I imagine the feds would take this kind of spoofing very, very seriously.
I believe schle means a software-based location spoofer that feeds a false location to the app in question, instead of messing with the actual connection to the GPS satellites.
Re: (Score:3)
No need to broadcast or jam on licensed spectrum or buy a device.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
software. on the phone. spoofing.
he's not saying hey i'm gonna try and fake a half dozen satellites using a swarm drones or something hovering around him and his phone. ...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Fake GPS location spoofer (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
How about using Fake GPS location spoofer? Is it able to send fake coordinates to Google Play, too?
I'm sure a GPS location spoofer, if such a thing exists, is highly illegal and would get you in big trouble to use it. GPS signals are on a licensed part of the spectrum, and interfering with those frequencies can cause not just your GPS device to fail, but possibly others around you. GPS is used in in some life or death applications, such as air navigation, so I imagine the feds would take this kind of spoofing very, very seriously.
The reference to a spoofer in this case, is software that runs on the phone to tell the OS and the apps on the phone where the phone is. There isn't any radio frequency involved.
Recently it's been used to let people "walk around" playing Pokemon Go while sitting in their basement.
Re: (Score:2)
A GPS spoofer app does nothing with GPS signaling. It simply sends mock location data to the requesting application, in place of legitimate recieved data.
There's nothing at all illegal about it, though most location based AR games will permanently ban you if they detect such activity.
Side note, the whole "Slashdot requires you to wait between each successful posting of a comment to allow everyone a fair chance at posting a comment." thing is patently ridiculous these days. The site isn't even close to being
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure it was never a technical limitation, just a social one. If the same person replies to literally everyone else's comments on a story, it's really offputting (especially if it's the kind of comments that inevitably show up as first posts--you know the ones).
Re: (Score:2)
"Side note, the whole "Slashdot requires you to wait between each successful posting of a comment to allow everyone a fair chance at posting a comment." thing is patently ridiculous these days. The site isn't even close to being high enough traffic that people can't reply as much as they'd like."
That was never the point. The point was to stop spam and GNAA trolling.
Re: (Score:2)
GPS Spoofing can be done in an app that in no way modifies the operation of or broadcasts through the phone's GPS antenna. It simply allows you to manually punch in the coordinates you want to represent as your location that the system will use instead of reading from the GPS antenna itself. This functionality was even included as part of the Developer options menu in the Android settings; though the current build installed on my Galaxy S5 seems to only allow one to specify an app that serves as the gps l
Re: (Score:3)
I can't tell if you're being serious.
If yes: The person you were replying to is most likely talking about GPS spoofing software for phones that allows you to change your GPS coordinates that the OS reports. There is an option in Developer options that lets you change the program used for location.The 3rd party software usually lets you just point to a map to set the coordinates, and that's what the OS uses as your GPS coordinates. Nothing to do with actual GPS signals or frequencies :)
It's primary use is
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Try to understand. Google is a company. They need to make money.
They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone. If they don't feel like they made *enough* money, they should have charged more for the phone and/or licensing Android, not spying and selling out and digitally violating all of their users 24 hours a day.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Try to understand. Google is a company. They need to make money.
They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone. If they don't feel like they made *enough* money, they should have charged more for the phone and/or licensing Android, not spying and selling out and digitally violating all of their users 24 hours a day.
Samsung, HTC, et al made money when you bought the goddamn phone. Google makes money in services, like the one this article is about.
Re: Fake GPS location spoofer (Score:5, Informative)
No, they didn't. $15 Android phone vs $650 (Score:5, Insightful)
> They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone.
No, no they didn't. Google doesn't charge money for Android. That's why you can get an Android phone for $15. They made nothing when you bought your phone. They make money while you use your phone.
If you prefer to pay for your phone in cash at the time of purchase, you can buy an iPhone for $650. Apple makes money when you buy your phone.
Of course, the iPhone also tracks you by default, but by paying $650 you can turn location tracking off. Well you can turn it off completely on Android too, but anyway, no Google didn't make money when you bought your phone. The store you bought it from made money, the company that made the phone made money, hell even Microsoft made money, not so much Google.
I gave you the product name and price (Score:3)
> Is there a reason you can't pay the true cost up front, instead of giving up privacy?
Perhaps you missed this:
>> If you prefer to pay for your phone in cash at the time of purchase, you can buy an iPhone for $650. Apple makes money when you buy your phone.
> Could it be that Google is an advertising company, and makes far more money over time through third-party sales of your location data to sleazy marketers?
Not quite. They are an advertising company, NOT a marketing data broker. They don't do
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
They made their money when I bought the goddamn phone. If they don't feel like they made *enough* money, they should have charged more for the phone and/or licensing Android, not spying and selling out and digitally violating all of their users 24 hours a day.
That's not their business model. If you don't like their business model, don't buy their product. I know, it's not as much fun as whining about it here, but trust me it's more effective.
Re: Fake GPS location spoofer (Score:5, Insightful)
This should be modded way down. "Not buying the product" on an individual level does SHIT to change corporate behavior.
Yes you are right. Keep buying their shit and giving them money, but come here and whine about it. You know how to affect change. You are truly a revolutionary my friend.
Plus, giving up that fancy smartphone would be HARD. No Angry Birds. No Snapchat. It's not a life worth living.
Re: Fake GPS location spoofer (Score:5, Insightful)
Because due to the way that capitalism corrodes market choice and reduces product quality, I have two viable choices for a smartphone
Translation: you want to have your cake and eat it too. No one owes you anything. You are not entitled to cheap wonderful smart phones. There's nothing in the Bill of Rights guaranteeing all citizens cheap, wonderful, feature rich smart phones. There are products on the market. Some gather usage stats. Others have more walled gardens than others. Others yet are more expensive and less feature rich. You get to choose one of these based on your criteria.
Why don't you look into Ubuntu phones? http://www.ubuntu.com/phone [ubuntu.com]
What a wonderful 1st world problem we have here huh?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Apple is actually pretty transparent about which apps are accessing your location (or, it seems to be). I noticed the location services icon a few times when I thought it didn't make sense, but I was able to see which app had recently used the location services and disabled it. Problem solved. The annoying location thing with Apple is that Siri can't search the web without location turned on (or at least, she couldn't the last time I tried, which was a relatively long time ago). So, I don't use Siri for tha
Re: (Score:2)
Where's a payphone at? Those roadside call boxes? Yes having a cell phone opens up a world of snooping and smart phones with locked in apps (such as facebook) that have the ability to track your every movement, text, phone call and contact.
Gee, modern technology is so wonderful.
Re: (Score:2)
Where's a payphone at? Those roadside call boxes?
I'm sure I'm not the only one who carries a pre-paid phone in the glove box with emergency contacts in it and the battery taken out. I think it probably costs me $5 or $7 a month and provides me with one of the few truly useful aspects of owning a cell phone without the downsides of carrying one everywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
well only if you carry it around in an aluminum foil wrapper do you win the price. ;-)