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A comment on Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens. Parent comment

Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by glandium on Sunday January 06, 2019 @01:40AM (#18836952)
Fun fact: my Android phone battery was being sucked at a fast pace last month. I don't remember exactly how it presented itself in the UI, but I ended up figuring out that the Google app was the culprit, because it was using the GPS... which I had explicitly disabled.

An internet search showed I was not alone with such problems, and that the solution was to manually revoke some permissions for the app (thankfully it was possible).

I find it amazing that an app can make use of the GPS when it's disabled! I'm actually seriously pissed about it, but there's not much I can do about it.

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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by spac on Sunday January 06, 2019 @01:47AM (#18836972)
But you do have the option to purchase phones running operating systems that implement tighter and more credible controls. I believe that companies understand nothing better that consumer dollars.
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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by glandium on Sunday January 06, 2019 @01:57AM (#18836998)
The fact that I could prevent the app from using the GPS says the OS does have the tight controls already. This is not a problem of permissions model.

Also, the only non Android phones are essentially from Apple, and they are too big for my taste. (also, ridiculously expensive ; also, my wife uses iPhones, they all ended their (short) career with a swollen battery; not sure what she does with them)

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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by zoul on Sunday January 06, 2019 @02:14AM (#18837047)
iPhone SE is small and fairly cheap.
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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by metildaa on Sunday January 06, 2019 @02:29AM (#18837100)
Its also a redheaded stepchild that Apple has discontinued without a replacement, not a great place to migrate to if you want a new phone of similar size in 3 or 4 years running iOS.
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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by maigret on Sunday January 06, 2019 @04:01AM (#18837375)
Of course it’s all hypothetical, but many pundits are betting on a comeback of a SE type of iPhone, as the expensive strategy is not working for Apple.
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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by pasta on Sunday January 06, 2019 @03:03AM (#18837207)
On Android location != GPS.

For location also Wi-Fi is used. So GPS can be turned off but they can track your location by looking at the available Wi-Fi spots around you.

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Re:Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Ca... by glandium on Sunday January 06, 2019 @04:38AM (#18837464)
My battery was being sucked by GPS according to the battery usage reporting. And that stopped being the case when I revoked the Google app permissions.
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