Google is tracking you. Even when you're in Airplane Mode w/o SIM card [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0G6mUyIgyg

by Jerry2 • 7 years ago

42 20 7 years ago

dekhn• 7 years ago

Is the android phone OS actually uploading location information unencrypted as implied (they mitm'd the phone and said they saw raw locations, unencrypted).

olooney3• 7 years ago

I know that Apple got in trouble for storing and passing around unencrypted location data a while back.[1] I also remember a story about predator drones sending unencrypted video feeds, apparently because key management is hard and they thought their enemies were too low tech to intercept.[2] I'm not a security/cryptography guy, but my impression is developers do this because it's easier.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/40477441/facebook-google-apple-k...

[2] https://www.wired.com/2012/10/hack-proof-drone/

TFortunato• 7 years ago

Heh, sadly, I would not at all be surprised to see a: "TODO: encrypt this" somewhere in the comments

imposterr• 7 years ago

I assumed that they installed a root cert from the mitm device on the phones ahead of time so all the encrypted data could be read.

londons_explore• 7 years ago

My guess is they installed an MITM tool which uses fake certificates to decrypt Https.

Not much data in or out of Google is plain http anymore.

zwerdlds• 7 years ago

One thing this video implies is that no radios are on during airplane mode. Perhaps my terminology is imprecise but the passive GPS receiver can remain active. Still, its creepy (though unsurprising) that it uploads the data anyways.

BTW, having the GPS on must have been a massive battery drain. I know it is on my phone, especially for initial triangulation. I wonder if low power mode would help?

olooney3• 7 years ago

I guess I knew GPS was passive but I would have guessed - naively, it turns out - that "airplane mode" turns off all interfaces to the outside world.

Is there a way to toggle off the GPS on an android phone?

downrightmike• 7 years ago

open the phone, find the chip, burn it out.

maltalex• 7 years ago

Faraday cage?

tinus_hn2• 7 years ago

On iPhone, GPS is on in airplane mode as well (but you can just turn off the location services if you want).

neuralRiot• 7 years ago

You can set it to be off too in settings.

olooney3• 7 years ago

Many of the youtube comments were people asking if he turned off location tracking... does anyone here know if that would be an effective countermeasure?

lern_too_spel4• 7 years ago

Yes. The reporter didn't understand the difference between airplane mode and Google Location Services. If you turn off the latter, the location upload won't happen, and you can still get your GPS location if you want it. iOS has the same location services system, but you cannot disable it if you want to get your location.

tinus_hn2• 7 years ago

One difference is that your location is not associated with your identity, it’s associated with a random ID that automatically refreshes every few days.

p49k• 7 years ago

A distinction that almost no end user would realistically be expected to know and which Google doesn’t bother to inform users about in clear terms in the UI.

latexr• 7 years ago

The reporter didn't understand the difference between airplane mode and Google Location Services. If you turn off the latter, the location upload won't happen

“Google collects Android users’ locations even when location services are disabled”: https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...

Google is tracking you. Even when you're in Airplane Mode w/o SIM card [video]

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