Technology

Just need to financially cripple investment into companies like this. Go out of your way to march with your wallet to get impacts into their profitability.

Please support 404media of you can. They have a free plan which helps or donate. As ypu can see, they do god's work since he's to lazy to do it.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying?language=en

Thanks for including the mirror, OP.

Companies that obtain mobile phone location data generally do it in two different ways. The first is through software development kits (SDKs) embedded in ordinary smartphone apps, like games or weather forecasters. These SDKs continuously gather a user’s granular location, transfer that to the data broker, and then sell that data onward or repackage it and sell access to government agencies.

The second is through real-time bidding (RTB). When an advert is about to be served to a mobile phone user, there is a near instantaneous, and invisible, bidding process in which different companies vie to have their advert placed in front of certain demographics. A side-effect is that this demographic data, including mobile phones’ location, can be harvested by surveillance firms. Sometimes spy companies buy ad tech companies out right to insert themselves into this data supply chain. We previously found at least thousands of apps were hijacked to provide location data in this way.

I really despise these practices. I don't know how people can build these tools with a clear conscience.

If the government had a right to that data they wouldn't need to pay for it, they could just subpoena it. But they don't, so instead they're paying middle men to circumvent our rights.

Yeah, doing everything they can to make "land of the free" whiter.

A proper Linux phone cannot come soon enough

Of course the US Government is using Israeli Spyware to track American citizens.

Trump’s executive order just made anyone who is critical of his administrations criminal conduct a terrorist by royal decree. We all should be armed and prepared to defend ourselves and our families against tyranny. They’re “disappearing” people without accountability. The pedo king literally declared war on citizens for not conforming to his dictatorship. The military was instructed to commit war crimes against American citizens yesterday. ie:raping and pillaging. Am I misreading the situation?

This appears to suggest that smartphone makers (Apple, Google, etc.) are violating privacy agreements and selling user's private data. Has anyone read their privacy agreements lately?

Bro...my weather app is selling my data? 😦

I just wanted up-to-date travel conditions in a convenient widget. My taxes already pay for the meteorology, why do they need to sell my data too??

So they will know where I have been? Even though I am not American... I remember when the British government demanded that Apple give them that kind of information on all iPhone users all over the world and Apple told them to go fuck themselves.

This is some real bullshit.

This reminds me of something... What was it... Hmm...

Is it me or are these ice goons getting fatter everyday? Are they eating the immigrants?

They already have it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance

Ever wondered what it would have been like if the gestapo had real-time awareness of every citizen's location at all times? You're about to find out.

Some choices to help would be to avoid using precise location for weather apps. Course is usually very good unless you're a weather tracking hobbyist. If you're not using ad blocking it's never a bad time to start.

Ad blocking in browser is good but combined with a DNS service that offers block lists like Hagezi's options it's great. These lists can block a lot of tracking and telemetry data and not just the ads themselves. ControlD and NextDNS are two solid options. NextDNS doesn't offer Hagezi Threat Intelligence Feeds specifically but have their own proprietary version. The company claims it covers much of Hagezi's lists but I haven't compared.

ControlD has a 30 day free trial period with two plans either $20 or $40 per year. The $40 per year option has a future called Redirect. Their description "Spoof various web services, apps and platforms to geo-distributed proxy locations and appear to be in a different country".

NextDNS has a free plan that can be used on multiple devices. Paid is $20 per year for unlimited. The catch to the free plan is it's good for 300,000 queries per month. If you get close they email a warning and if you go over the service will still work as a DNS but without the blocking. It will automatically start again the next cycle.

Here's the Hagezi GitHub but other lists are good too like OISD and AdGuard lists.

https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists

I use Ultimate but that may be too restricted for some. It will break websites and apps like FaceBook, WhatsApp, Instagram. If you use those a slightly less strict list a better choice. You'll still get protection but there's a balance to everyone's needs so do read up on each list and what makes sense for you.

All that wrapped in a trusted VPN and you're doing pretty well. Nothing is perfect and if a government power wants to know where you are this isn't going to stop them. For me that's not what this is for. I use this stuff against the ads and tracking crap everywhere. I'm not trying to hide and can't really offer much regarding that.

I'm maybe a bit over the top compared to some. If this all sounds crazy a simple ad blocker (AdGuard, uBlock Origin) in browser and course location for weather and anything else location based that makes sense is a solid start. You can always whitelist websites you wish to support via ad revenue if that's an interest.

Time for meshtasctic? Or nothing. How about never using our phones again?

This will not help sale of smartphones.