Privacy advocates gained access to a powerful tool bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies that can track smartphone locations around the world. Abortion clinics, places of worship, and individual people can all be monitored without a warrant.

Privacy advocates got access to Locate X, a phone tracking tool which multiple U.S. agencies have bought access to, and showed me and other journalists exactly what it was capable of. Tracking a phone from one state to another to an abortion clinic. Multiple places of worship. A school. Following a likely juror to a residence. And all of this tracking is possible without a warrant, and instead just a few clicks of a mouse.

  • @HazorEnglish
    -2•29 days ago

    You could also just turn it off.

    • @WoodScientistEnglish
      12•29 days ago

      You sure it’s still not phoning home? How do you know “off” is really “off” anymore with a modern phone? It’s not like an old flip phone that you can just pop the battery out. Sure it sounds paranoid, but we’re literally talking about something that used to be the realm of crackpots and cranks - “the government is tracking all of us 24/7!” Well, it seems that’s actually literally the case now.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•28 days ago

        I absolutely do not trust that an “off” phone is actually off, unless the battery is removed (assuming it can be).

      • @MaggotyEnglish
        -7•29 days ago

        Yes. When your phone is off, it is off.

        If you’re paranoid you can buy a faraday bag.

        • @WoodScientistEnglish
          18•29 days ago

          The iPhone remote locator function still works when the phone is powered off. It doesn’t work when the battery is completely dead, but it does work when the phone is supposedly “powered off.” This is irrefutable proof that iPhones at least retain some of their functions even when you’ve “turned them off.”

          • @MaggotyEnglish
            -12•29 days ago

            This is where paranoia comes into play. That’s Apple’s information. Not anyone else’s. If you believe Apple is selling it to this company and ignoring the phone setting that enables it then use the faraday bag.

            But this company is not getting that information directly. It gets your information from cell tower pings at best, and social media scraping at worst.

        • @[email protected]English
          3•28 days ago

          I don’t want to encourage paranoia here but “off” does not mean “off”. Modern phones are almost never actually “powered down”. If you’re paranoid, turning your phone off is not enough. Leave it behind.

          (Also a gap in your phone’s location history can also be used against you, fwiw.)

        • @BytemeisterEnglish
          1•28 days ago

          Yeah, and Alexa/Siri/Google assistant don’t eavesdrop unless you use the magic words to activate them.