Is there any way to block this location data sharing? What about other carriers? I always think about denying apps access to this stuff but a carrier tracking me is insane and scary. The linked article makes it seem like ATT and Verizon also do this.
Beyond carrier opt-outs (which often have loopholes), you can physically block tracking by toggling airplane mode with WiFi enabled when possible, or using a signal-blocking Faraday bag for your phone during sensitive travel.
if your location data is continuous, but happens to "switch off" when you're doing something sensitive, then it's like a blaring alarm that this is the period of time that is "sus". It gives any sort of LEA/feds a time period to investigate, and might even be the evidence they need for a search warrant.
Therefore, you should not just hide your signal only when you are doing sensitive things. You should periodically hide it going to groceries, going to the shops etc. You might want to do it regularly, as part of your daily life. Camouflage only works if it cannot be used to tell apart your activities.
Case in point... protest tracking, Brian Kohberger, hell, a local case used location data as an additional smoking gun on a murder, even getting past GPS "accuracy" barriers and claims to get a conviction.
This is not quite true. They have to know roughly where your cell phone is but, helpfully, your cellphone starts the process as soon as you start it up and then it is a courtesy to you that the unit closest to you will handle your call(s) and other traffic because that will save you battery and reduces the amount of power your phone will use which in turn will allow others relatively nearby to use the same slice of the spectrum while you are transmitting. Phased arrays on the mast make this even more precise and further conserve power. But that really is a courtesy: it would all work without that luxury but less efficient and your phone's battery would be empty faster.
The part that really is optional is where the carrier then stores and even sells your location. They are mandated by law with respect to the first and they abuse the technical capabilities of the system for the second. And even if it isn't very precise for a single measurement it is in fact quite precise after you haven't moved for a while.
They know alot. The data is used to estimate average speeds on roads with alot of throughput and can profile location between known sites. (Work/school/etc)
You can buy data about the incomes of people driving past a given intersection. That's why you'll see a Starbucks sometimes on a trunk road in a sketch area.
Yes, the aggregate value of this data is substantial. And of course nobody in the possession of something valuable, especially not a telco, ever thought 'am I acting in the interest of the data subjects by selling this data?'.
Carrier tracking isn't precise as GPS tracking via the phone. Its frequently a mile or more off. Banks were using it in lieu of a travel notice to see if the card swipe and phone were in the same city. Thats my experience with it. They moved away though and now try to ping the app(silent push) to get an IP or location data since buying location data from carriers is expensive.
> Carrier tracking isn't precise as GPS tracking via the phone.
Not any more. 5G changes this now that the location spying is baked into the cell tech itself. The base stations are literally steering the beam to follow you in order to achieve such high bandwidth. See “5G NR Positioning Enhancements in 3GPP Release-18” (2024): https://arxiv.org/html/2401.17594v1
“New radio (NR) positioning in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 18 (Rel-18) enables 5G-advanced networks to achieve ultra-high accuracy positioning without dependence on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)”
“Release 18 (Rel-18) NR pushes the boundaries even further, unlocking the potential for applications in 5G-Advanced networks that demand ultra-high positioning accuracy – down to centimeter-level (cm-level)” (emphasis mine)
The overwhelming majority of 5G cells don't do any of that.
Even though modern cellular deployments have increased the positioning accuracy a bit, best in class network telemetry (either embedded or third party probes) that estimate positions from timing advances is still pretty crap in real life.
There are other tricks you can use such as "minimization of drive tests" that get the A-GPS position (which again, is not always that accurate, because it's cached), but this kind of telemetry is enabled only on small samples, because it has a non-trivial impact on the network performance.
Then I guess you could use straight up illegal ways such as abusing the E911 / E112 location tracking.
I use Ooma VOIP service and you can forward calls to a different number (I use that occasionally). I don't use it but they also have an iOS / Android app which lets you make calls from your Ooma VOIP number. The FAQ says you can't call 911 with it, so that's smoke anyway.
Could just set up a phone farm like the Chinese run. They've got fun little adapters and boxes to get full "remote" control of a phone. Could rig one up for your own application, or maybe a pseudo-phone-RDP setup.
Get a Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number and a VoIP host that speaks SIP. Dunno about iOS, but Android has had native SIP support built in since Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
But those apps don't actually care about the phone number beyond the initial registration? Once registered, they work entirely via IP and don't know nor care which SIM is in your phone.
You will however have a problem with registering on those with a VoIP number - those ranges are generally blacklisted due to bad actors misusing those numbers for nefarious purposes.
I doubt RMS frequently borrows phones from strangers. It's usually from people who know him and are with him. They already have the phone, so RMS's using it doesn't increase the tracking it's already doing, and in some ways it pollutes the tracking data, also good.
I once suggested some alternatives to him like Meshtastic, but he travels too much to random places for that to be practical.
