Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Android

poor mystic

Apr 8, 2011
1,074
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
1,074
Hi everybody! :)
I'm concerned about my personal privacy with my and my girlfriend's Android telephones. I would prefer to feel we weren't actually being tracked wherever we went by the agents of a foreign power, if you see what I mean.
I notice that Google Maps, for instance, can read all our phone calls and report them to whomsoever it wishes, along with our locations and identities.
It's enough to make me want to get rid of intelligent telephony and use the internet only, until such time as I decide the internet in general is also too insecure.
 

shrtrnd

Jan 15, 2010
3,876
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
3,876
We can track you whether you make a phone call or not.
What do you think the US gov't is giving all those free cell phones away for?
 

poor mystic

Apr 8, 2011
1,074
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
1,074
Yesss...
comes a time the only thing can save us is a galactic plasma storm
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
Turn off your phone.

As long as it is turned on (and not in "aircraft mode") it will be connected, or trying to connect to a cell. Once it is connected to a cell anyone who can access the cell tower information can determine which cell your phone (and by extension, you) are in.

Any additional GPS information is simply refining this. If your phone reports that independent of your desires, simply make sure you don't have a data plan. Or turn off the GPS.

I always have the GPS turned off on my phone simply because it wastes battery to keep it listening when I don't need it to.
 

Raven Luni

Oct 15, 2011
798
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
798
1. If you understand the technology and have half a brain you should always know what its potential uses are. This is why I point and laugh at people when they get shut down for storing porn on their sky drive or other cloud based storage.

2. If youve got nothing to hide youve got nothing to worry about.
 

shrtrnd

Jan 15, 2010
3,876
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
3,876
Wrong.
Even if your cell phone is turned off, the men in black can 'ping' your phone from cell
towers and have your position, ... exactly.
Just saying.
You can remove the battery, but then what would be the point?
 

poor mystic

Apr 8, 2011
1,074
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
1,074
:)
A tinfoil hat for my cellphone is a very different proposition. But I prefer the "no battery"option.

What I object to is the general oversight of society which current technology affords some person or persons (hypothetical); these persons for reasons unknown have a prurient interest in my and your life, in the lives of those beloved. I believe it is likely that we all feel the same on this.
 

shrtrnd

Jan 15, 2010
3,876
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
3,876
I've been told Aussies trust the gov't to do the right thing for their people.
Unfortunately, everything can be hacked.
Like Raven Luni said, if you've got nothing to hide, nobody bothers with you.
It's the potential possibilities, that I think we're talking about here.
It took three cell towers to triangulate an exact fix. It only takes one satellite.
The funny thing to me, is that people pay for this convenience themselves, and then
carry it around with themselves. In the US you're supposed to get a court order to
put a tracking device on somebody. But there's no law against doing it to yourself.
(I'm wearing my tin hat while I type this, ....)
 

davenn

Moderator
Sep 5, 2009
14,254
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
14,254
I've been told Aussies trust the gov't to do the right thing for their people.............

yeah right!!! not in this lifetime hahaha
I couldnt trust them to tell me my weight, and I think most people here would feel the same


Dave
 

poor mystic

Apr 8, 2011
1,074
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
1,074
Yet I've observed an amazing trust among the Australian people in their government, while at the same time Australia is actually developing into a very repressive society.
 

shrtrnd

Jan 15, 2010
3,876
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
3,876
Alright, maybe I'm getting some of my 'trust' info from the wrong sources.
My gov't tells us we're ALL overweight, and I think the 'trust in gov't' crowd is thinning here
in the Colonies.
 

poor mystic

Apr 8, 2011
1,074
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
1,074
I think it would be a sad development if electronicspoint were to become political-ised, so I'll refrain from further comment. Except to say that
I am of those usual opinions espoused of aging hippy types, while also as usual I am the kind of poor-spirited, inactive pacifist that the establishment ignores quite safely.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
I think there's a difference between believing that the government is out to get you and that the government (of any persuasion) can't rustle up enough skills to tie its own shoelaces.
 

davenn

Moderator
Sep 5, 2009
14,254
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
14,254
I think there's a difference between believing that the government is out to get you and that the government (of any persuasion) can't rustle up enough skills to tie its own shoelaces.

thats true !!

and I think our current one is running at ~ 50/50 at the moment haha


D
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
If you're going to have malevolence, it should be combined with liberal (or labor, or green!) doses of incompetence to make it meaningless.

Edit, for the non-Aussies, you need to realise that our Government is a source of entertainment, not authority or leadership.
 
Last edited:

todaycomponents

Feb 5, 2013
7
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
7
This privacy thing is not going away, guess we'll just have to accept, unless we want to live a lifestyle thats very different to the mainstream.... IOS is not any different I can tell you...
 
Top