Being tracked and packaged

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Has anyone's phone/Siri gotten to the level of "Remind me to get rubber stoppers and lye when I get to Home Depot"?

That's what I want. Siri won't do it.

[gacook]

Originally Posted by JD159

So how does Google know what traffic is like on the roads, nearly all the time? From our smartphones, of course. Whether you like it or not, “telephone companies have always known where your phone is,” Dobson says, because cell phone companies need to use location to appropriately charge customers for calls. That means the companies are constantly monitoring location based on the strength of signal to a cell tower, which allows the phone to switch towers as it travels. Since 2011, the Federal Communications Commission has also required that phones come with GPS, so between the triangulation with cell towers and the GPS requirement, your phone is a marked man.

Sorry gacook. They still know where you are!

I'm well aware of how GPS is used by the phone companies themselves, and law enforcement, and I'm ok with that. That is completely different than allowing apps on your phone (provided by 3rd parties) to know where you are. THAT I don't allow.

[gacook]

Originally Posted by GWN7

Take the battery out..........

Oh yea, the new phones don't allow you to do that......

Correction, the new APPLE phones don't allow you to do that (iPods, too). I stick with Samsung Galaxy or LG G3/4 phones. Battery is easily accessible, so if I ever need a new one, I can do it myself

[Brian in VA]

You really want to be freaked out about all this, listen to the interview of John McAfee on the James Altucher podcast. All about tracking, apps, privacy. Plus that guy is pretty amazing - I had no idea.

[Holger]

It is so funny. It has been in the news for many years, EVERYone you talk to is outraged about this ... so, why does nothing change? Why dont we just leave those products in the shelves? In the very end everyone is to lazy and does not care.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by Holger

It is so funny. It has been in the news for many years, EVERYone you talk to is outraged about this ... so, why does nothing change? Why dont we just leave those products in the shelves? In the very end everyone is to lazy and does not care.

Because they has Teh Angry Birds.

Edward Snowden on the "Smurf" programs. Dreamy Smurf turns your phone on/off. Nosey Smurf hot mics and eavesdrops. Tracker Smurf, well....Worth watching.

Edward Snowden interview: 'Smartphones can be taken over' - BBC News

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Holger

It is so funny. It has been in the news for many years, EVERYone you talk to is outraged about this ... so, why does nothing change? Why dont we just leave those products in the shelves? In the very end everyone is to lazy and does not care.

Yep.

People are stupid - Americans especially so. Look at what we've given up or given away all in the name of the latest geegaws out of China's bottomless slave labor factories over the last several decades. We've given up our manufacturing, our industrial edge, our economic power, our innovation and our global leverage and clout. We've opened our borders to millions of unskilled losers and takers. We're no good to anyone on earth anymore beyond what we can consume, consume, consume, and we've got the collective fat asses and bellies to prove we're capable of doing at least that.

I'm frankly disgusted by what America has become and this cuts right to the heart of why. People need to learn to say "no", to push back, to demand different and better and be willing to look at an aspect of something other than simply price point. As the old saying goes, "you get what you pay for". If you want cheap junk, you'll get it - but one way or another you'll pay. We've paid entirely too much.

Do your homework and learn what the limits are, how to protect yourself, how to limit access, etc. Or simply say "no" as has been suggested. "No" to bigger, more intrusive government, "no" to even more corporatism (if that's even possible), "no" to Chinese junk and "no" to mindless consumerism.