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.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    16 days ago

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

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

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18·
      16 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.”

      • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
        113·
        16 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.

    • winterayars@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      15 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.)

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      15 days ago

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