Weaning myself off Google (personal stuff, not work)

[mavhc]

One interesting thing I've discovered whilst fiddling about with ProtonMail is that Facebook lets you use PGP for all emails that they send you. You can add your public certificate to your Facebook profile, and then enable encrypted notification emails.

 

That obviously has only a limited impact on improving your privacy, since it changes nothing about what Facebook themselves are able to tell gather on you, but I thought it was quite a neat little feature nevertheless.

 

I was also glad to discover that ProtonMail, as well as allowing multiple aliases and use of custom domains, also support +aliases, like Gmail.

 

Wonder what the overlap of people who use pgp and people who care about emails from facebook is?

 

Does show that it's pretty easy to implement though.

[enjay]

The one which is scaring me today is Facebook - I looked at my "people you may know" list yesterday, and saw my wife's physio. They are not friends on Facebook, won't be in any photos together, my wife doesn't "like" the physio's website - so, the only link I can see is she may have visited the website from one of our laptops, or Facebook has noticed their phones are often together. Either way, quite scary. This a few days after an ad for Amazon showed a product I'd looked at in school (I haven't logged in to Facebook on this PC in months).

 

This level of invasiveness is annoying to me too, as it benefits Facebook much more than it benefits me since all Facebook's monitoring does for me is give me targeted ads. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see targeted ads than random ones - and have even bought things from them - but there are easier ways to identify my interests, just look at my "likes"!

Edited December 1, 2017 by enjay

[ColinP]

i had a very similar thing with the care takers wife poping up on facebook :/

[jthompson]

I think that's a further demonstration of how our privacy is affected as much (if not more) by how our friends and acquaintances (and friends of friends) are being used by these services. If almost everyone you come into contact with has a leaky Facebook profile, with devices all stuck on their default settings, and they only use Google and Amazon and never use private browsing, etc. you're still going to be profiled by the tech firms from a million different angles from the outside.

[jmak]

I think it's location based; I constantly get friend suggestions for staff and volunteers in school and to a lesser extent parents. The only link I can think of is that we all regularly spend time at the school location. None of them are friends or friends or friends and I've never Facebook 'liked' a person or post in my life.

[mavhc]

A lot of people are syncing their phone contacts, and thus also email addresses with Facebook, which causes most of the matching.

[enjay]

A lot of people are syncing their phone contacts, and thus also email addresses with Facebook, which causes most of the matching.

 

I did that a long time ago, but have since revoked the permissions. Mrs Enjay has never done that. I suppose Mrs Enjay's physio might have done it and thus established a link in Facebook-land between them, and Facebook therefore suggest the physio to me too, as they're aware of the link with my wife.

[mavhc]

I did that a long time ago, but have since revoked the permissions. Mrs Enjay has never done that. I suppose Mrs Enjay's physio might have done it and thus established a link in Facebook-land between them, and Facebook therefore suggest the physio to me too, as they're aware of the link with my wife.

 

Sounds reasonable.

 

Register a domain, then tell everyone your email add is @yourdomain you'd have to replace their @ with something though, maybe 2 dots would do, the last two dots in an address wouldn't be ambiguous.

[vimagoes]

I don't think I'll be ditching Chrome anytime soon, I like the way it follows me around, on phone and my machines. I go to work I have my bookmarks synced, I go home and they are synced etc...

 

I'm not too fussed about anyone spying or knowing what I look at on the internet etc, like they would be interested in the like sof you and me anyway - have nothing at all to hide.

 

100% with you and I will say more.

This is the price you have to pay (well actually google services are for free) to have all those fancy features. I don't mind Google knowing where I am or where I was/went, in fact it is useful, many times I have been is this fancy pub drinking a beer and I just don't remember where it was or the name, but wait, let me check my activity and I'll tell you in a few seconds. It is just an example, another one might be the possibility to download maps offline, I use that a lot when I am travelling with my bicycle where no signal available or before free roaming and is very handy. Synchronization in my browsers is vital for me. Drive, Photos, Inbox, the power and speed of chrome browser, Android Pay, Authenticator, Keep, play Music, thanks Google for Translator and so on. I love Android, I don't hate Apple but after being an Apple consumer I had enough of this end-to-end philosophy, I love Android!!!

 

Of course this is all about my non-professional life. In my job I am a Windows/Microsoft guy, I am SysAdmin and I am managing DC's and FS in Windows Domain, 0365 in the platform I have set, I use OneNote and I encrypt what is necessary to encrypt to keep my notes secure, I use OneDrive in my job, Word, Excel, you name it, I love Microsoft, I don't hate Linux but after being a Linux consumer I had enough of this manual patching philosophy, I love Microsoft!!!!

 

Most of the people I know that complain about Google lack of privacy use facebook every day to post their entire life, their sons and friends without any remorse, but hey, Google is spying on me, because I am a VIP worth it to spy.

 

Well, I think that if you are jealous about your privacy then ditch your phone entirely and do not use the internet (TOR is traceable too).

 

Just MHO.

Edited December 1, 2017 by vimagoes

[mavhc]

I don't remember having to manually patch anything in linux in about 10 years.

 

At work I use MS, Google, Apple, Linux. At home I use MS, Google, Linux. If you don't use them how will you know which solution is best?

 

Google has better Classroom, Chromebooks, web editing (inc real time multi person), and way more websites support google login than MS.

 

MS has better integration with MS stuff

 

Linux has better network stuff, mass deployment etc.

 

Apple has better apps and management

 

Android has better phones

[jthompson]

Well, I think that if you are jealous about your privacy then ditch your phone entirely and do not use the internet (TOR is traceable too).

 

I'd like to think that there's some middle ground there still. Declaring that one must give up on privacy, or give up on computing altogether seems rather unrealistic to me.

[vimagoes]

I don't remember having to manually patch anything in linux in about 10 years.

 

 

About 10 years or more [emoji23] . I remember setting a file server in Debian in a Novel Network environment. A year after the corporation moved to Windows Server 2000 and my life became much easier.

[jthompson]

I'd like to think that there's some middle ground there still. Declaring that one must give up on privacy, or give up on computing altogether seems rather unrealistic to me.

 

Then again... https://theintercept.com/2017/11/24/staggering-variety-of-clandestine-trackers-found-in-popular-android-apps/

 

Sigh.

[vimagoes]

 

Then again... https://theintercept.com/2017/11/24/staggering-variety-of-clandestine-trackers-found-in-popular-android-apps/

 

 

A Google spokesperson confirmed that its ad platforms DoubleClick for Publishers and AdMob serve ads on both Android and iOS devices and that it ties information collected by the networks to a persistent identifier to measure engagement. Although users can control information Google uses to show them ads, they cannot specifically opt-out of DoubleClick.

 

No just a Google thing... and I would go further. Every time you use your credit/debit card you are leaving a digital signature, when you walk/drive/ride with your phone on your pocket, even switched off, you are leaving a digital signature (phone companies are tracing your phone using their antennas just receiving the battery signal), when you use an ATM, when you send a package, and so on and so on,.......

 

So it's difficult for me to think on a middle ground out there...

[enjay]

when you walk/drive/ride with your phone on your pocket, even switched off, you are leaving a digital signature (phone companies are tracing your phone using their antennas just receiving the battery signal)

 

Is that actually true, or just in TV land?

[vimagoes]

Is that actually true, or just in TV land?

 

Well, for sure companies can track you through your battery using the info about how your phone is pinging the antennas, with airplane mode or GPS disable they can still track you using this radio signal and localize your whereabouts with a quite good precision using the amount of battery your phone use to ping, the closer you are to an antenna the lesser power you need to ping it. Apart from that also some says that although with your phone switched off your battery is still pinging, so I think you are still able to be tracked.

[LeMarchand]

Well, for sure companies can track you through your battery using the info about how your phone is pinging the antennas, with airplane mode or GPS disable they can still track you using this radio signal and localize your whereabouts with a quite good precision using the amount of battery your phone use to ping, the closer you are to an antenna the lesser power you need to ping it. Apart from that also some says that although with your phone switched off your battery is still pinging, so I think you are still able to be tracked.

 

 

YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!

[enjay]

Well, for sure companies can track you through your battery using the info about how your phone is pinging the antennas, with airplane mode or GPS disable they can still track you using this radio signal and localize your whereabouts with a quite good precision using the amount of battery your phone use to ping, the closer you are to an antenna the lesser power you need to ping it. Apart from that also some says that although with your phone switched off your battery is still pinging, so I think you are still able to be tracked.

 

That's just repeating the claim. Can you actually support it?

 

Also, how would the antenna know how much battery my phone used to ping it? You're suggesting the phone pings the antenna, measures the (very, very, very small) drain in battery, then reports this back to the network provider, and it does this repeatedly and with different antenna in order to locate my switched off phone?

[DGardiner]

That's just repeating the claim. Can you actually support it?

 

Also, how would the antenna know how much battery my phone used to ping it? You're suggesting the phone pings the antenna, measures the (very, very, very small) drain in battery, then reports this back to the network provider, and it does this repeatedly and with different antenna in order to locate my switched off phone?

 

Can You Track Phone When it's Turned Off? Apparently, Yes! a few sources on the internet seem to mention this.

 

 

still probably not gonna happen for most of us.

[mavhc]

Yes, if someone hacks your phone to make it pretend to be off instead of being off

[CAM]

I think he's getting confused with battery and signal power.

 

If you have three antenna in a triangle (N, SE, SW) and you in the middle, they will all register the same strength of signal (let's say 10mw for argument sake, I don't know the exact units). If the North antenna registers 15mw and the others 5mw you know the user has moved closer to that antenna and thus moved North. If the next reading indicates North reading 13mw, SE 7mw and SW 2mw then you know the user has moved to the East and is somewhere in the NE region of the triangle.

[vimagoes]

That's just repeating the claim. Can you actually support it?

 

Also, how would the antenna know how much battery my phone used to ping it? You're suggesting the phone pings the antenna, measures the (very, very, very small) drain in battery, then reports this back to the network provider, and it does this repeatedly and with different antenna in order to locate my switched off phone?

 

Battery power alone can be used to track Android phones - BBC News

 

Apparently easy to do with your phone on, but with malware on your system it can be done with your phone off too

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Yes, if someone hacks your phone to make it pretend to be off instead of being off

 

Exactly

[vimagoes]

I think he's getting confused with battery and signal power.

 

If you have three antenna in a triangle (N, SE, SW) and you in the middle, they will all register the same strength of signal (let's say 10mw for argument sake, I don't know the exact units). If the North antenna registers 15mw and the others 5mw you know the user has moved closer to that antenna and thus moved North. If the next reading indicates North reading 13mw, SE 7mw and SW 2mw then you know the user has moved to the East and is somewhere in the NE region of the triangle.

 

Yes, this is what I wanted to say, but the battery power is what they use if your signal is off, apparently

Edited December 4, 2017 by vimagoes

[enjay]

Sorry @vimagoes but linking an article explaining how a phone which is turned on can be tracked doesn't prove an off phone can also be tracked.

 

So, NSA can apparently do it.

 

And malicious apps may be able to replace the power off sequence on my phone so it seems off when it isn't. I would notice the power drain though, and the battery reporting would show the phone being on all the time, plus the malicious app would need to accurately repeat the boot-up sequence when I go to turn it back on, including my calendar widget being slow to load. That's pretty unlikely in itself, plus I am confident none of the apps I have on my phone are doing that (that's about knowing and trusting the app source). I suppose Google could have coded Android to wake up invisibly, triangulate itself, report back and turn off again but personally I'm not buying that.

 

So, I don't think I'm victim to the second one, and I very much doubt the NSA care where I am either.

 

I think we're right to be security-conscious, but I also think we should remember Spooks and Homeland are TV shows not documentaries.

[mavhc]

Who's turning off their phone anyway?