Google can use Bluetooth to track phones even with Bluetooth turned off (2018)

Re:Google can use Bluetooth to track phones even with Blueto... by ajross on Monday April 13, 2020 @11:46AM (#22856832)

Any unboxing experience. I mean, naively this means that the doodad you just bought (like the IoT Sous-vide heater I got for Christmas) requires you to fumble with your settings to turn BT back on before you can pair it.

Now, sure, I'm sure the response of the people here is "But I turned it off because I want to have to use settings to turn it back on." And that's fine. But that's not the use case for most users, I strongly suspect. Having a phone that just works with crazy kitchen gadgets is something of real value.

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Re:Google can use Bluetooth to track phones even with Blueto... by A4ET8a8uTh0 on Monday April 13, 2020 @12:19PM (#22857151)

I think you are right. I don't like it, but as a user, I appear to be in a minority. My wife is not concerned about tracking nearly as much as I am. She was ok with ads disappearing from her Kindle, but she does not want to fiddle with anything. And to be perfectly honest, the older I get, the harder it is for me to devote time to do that as well. I even accepted BT pairing in car. That said, I already placed a line in the sand on BT for oven/fridge/toaster/younameit.

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Re:Google can use Bluetooth to track phones even with Blueto... by miscPerson on Monday April 13, 2020 @11:54AM (#22856905)

I’m suspicious of your reasoning.

Do you have any support that users who turn off a feature — such as Bluetooth — want it to continue to “just work”?

That seems opposite of their expressed intent in turning the feature off.

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