Privacy (Location pinging in background)

[kv1532]

This post is for those privacy conscience and aware of the insane data mining these companies do. r/privacy on Reddit is a great source for those wanting to dive into the rabbit hole of information about this.

I'm privacy conscience with tech. I know how foolish I sound saying that and yet still using Google/Samsung. I, however, feel like I've taken as many significant steps to limit data mining as I can short of going to custom ROM territory.

I obviously limit all "permissions" in the normie way and also run Blokada plus to just help take more control over things. I realized that Bluetooth is pinging my location every 1-3 minutes non stop. I can not revoke location access and unfortunately use Bluetooth on and off throughout the day so turning it off is not an option.

Here's my question: I don't recall my last phone S8 (Android 10) pinging location for Bluetooth (I could be wrong). Those of you with older phones, can you confirm if this is a new thing or has it always been. If new, this could be a major drain on battery and needs to be patched.

[user_ams007]

It is part of the Android 12 also see the attached picture of the Android intelligence system

[kv1532]

Yeah seems like it. Kinda unfortunate though

[robotdinosaur]

Thanks I'll double check google play services on my phone. I might have done something to some degree about this already though. I did an initial run through of settings based on battery life, but not really privacy when I first got the phone.

I figured not letting everything access my microphone/gps/etc would save my battery life because I don't charge my phone so google et al can run whatever they want on my phone.

I noticed when I finished most of samsung's settings, there was a button in settings that linked to a google account and I basically had to revoke all the same permissions again but in a weird google/native settings page. I think one even had weird wording trying to make me accidently confirm cancel instead of confirm accept. No one was making me shoot myself in the foot in terms of battery that day though and I caught it.

I'll look at those custom OS things later but if I can't put it on my new Samsung phone I probably won't consider it for a few years.

[kv1532]

Yeah it's actually quite shocking and disturbing how much data tech companies collect about us. Fortunately we can visualize some of it on Android. I can't imagine seeing everything Apple does. People claim it's privacy oriented. More so than google? Maybe. But as a whole there's so much on the back end of apps and the OS that datamine us.

I agree about the custom os stuff. I love the idea of it but I unfortunately have locked myself into Samsungs UI over Android and am too comfortable with it to fully switch. Graphene is a very very barebones version of Android. Calyx seems more friendly for beginners looking to take control over their data. For now I feel comfortable limiting Samsung and Google though.

[user_ams007]

Possibly the next Android version will have more options for security and other features that collect data from applications and other services

[kv1532]

I can see Google trying to make it seem like they are on par with IOS in terms of app privacy but I'm not believing them. Plus Samsung and Google will be working on Fuscia OS soon. I'm sure they'll collect more data 🙂

[user_ams007 · Accepted solution]

Please see Samsung’s privacy policy
https://terms.samsungconsent.com/j5p7ll8g33/PN/1.1/USA/USA_eng.html

[user_ams007]

If you open the settings for your Samsung account, there is an option for Samsung electronics to delete all your Data collected from your phone also there privacy policy settings

[kv1532]

Yeah I've gone through my Samsung acct and submitted CCPA requests a few weeks back. But there's still data retained that's not covered under it. Identifiers and fingerprinting stuff that gets linked to our accounts and devices.

[user_ams007]

I think that you have nothing to worry about,