Being tracked and packaged
 

Just noticed on my iphone voicemail that someone I recently started calling/talking with, but hadn't saved in my contacts, reads "Maybe: his name" under his phone number.

Thinking dispassionately about it for a second, it actually took longer than I would have thought.

More and more apps want to have access tracking and location services on my phone. I just keep telling them NO.

I never allow the tracking either. I don't know why some of the requesters would want to know where my phone is. Hell, half the time I don't know where it is.
I think the communication industry has been trying to beat us down with all this complication. It's worked to an extent with me. Somehow my iPhone changed the name associated with my office phone number from "office" to "Holiday in the USA." How the heck it did that is a mystery to me, but I haven't bothered to change it. Now when I want to call the office I just say, "Siri, call Holiday in the USA." How long before they completely take over my identity? I don't care. I'm not fighting it. "Hello, my name is Zorb."

iPhone? From what I've noticed, Apple products are much more aggressive in their attempts to track than other companies. I don't allow any app to track where I am--it's none of their damn business.

I have a friend who got one of the new I-phones with some of those tracking Apps. I finally told him that his phone telling everyone on Facebook where he was that day (whether going to Walmart or out of town seeing the sights) is really good for those wanting to know when he was away from the house, so they could rob him blind without a confrontation. It's just stupid how much people share with the world.

Just to be clear, your friend is sharing his location on Facebook by checking into those places. His phone isn't just automatically broadcasting his location to the public.

It would really suck to have friends who would rob you while you were checking in at In-N-Out.

That wouldn't be a problem for me, I have no friends.

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 usually turn off my phone the second I get in the car, for a number of reasons

I do that too and Waze actually gives better directions with the phone off.

I did that for a while, too, until a DHS agent showed up at my door and accused me of secretly developing a teleporter.

Each iOS upgrade gets more intrusive and aggressive. I'm not sure turning it off even helps anymore.

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

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

So does that mean I should stick with the flip phone instead of the iphone 4 my brother can get me for free?

Phones can collect information and transmit it (including audio and video from the microphone & camera - and GPS for locating) even while the phone is powered off. This has been proven repeatedly. If big government (or big data corporations) want to, they have the resources to do all this and more without your knowledge or consent. They do it too. Right now, today. It does happen. Look it up.

Tuesday I drove out to my other house. Decided while I was out there I'd visit some friends who live about 3 miles from the US border. I drive South and then turn East to get to their farm and my flip phone starts making noise. It's my provider. The message is a reminder of the roaming charges if I use my phone in the USA.

They are tracking you.

But it is their business (model). Having a giant window on the herd is valuable.

It's been all the rage for years now. Even this website has all sorts of metrics available to Wayne. Of course there are those who go out of their way to confound those metric collecting systems. Most users are too lazy of course, and others, just by mentioning it, tip their hand.

I thought that was just a feature of the latest OS, not quite as big-brotherish as implied... It scans stuff you *already have* (your emails, your texts, whatever) and infers possible appointments, flight info, reservations, and contact names and #s from that data. It then automatically "pencils in" appointment or contact names and numbers until you confirm their accuracy! It's actually cool, stuff from email pops in your calendar and all you gotta do is validate it, same with contacts... You already have that stuff, it did not steal it out of thin air (pretty sure it's not from FB either), as I understand it.. (as always, could be wrong)

and here is how you turn it off.. Though why you would, I'm not sure, it only works on stuff you freely gave away (or was sent to you anyway)

How to prevent iOS 9 from adding events to your calendar - CNET


Location services, yeah, that could be a problem in the near future...