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Everyone knows your location: tracking myself down through in-app ads

(timsh.org)
1957 points apokryptein | 3 comments | 02 Feb 25 17:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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qingcharles ◴[02 Feb 25 20:40 UTC] No.42911578[source]▶
One big privacy issue is that there is no sane way to protect your contact details from being sold, regardless of what you do.

As soon as your cousin clicks "Yes, I would like to share the entire contents of my contacts with you" when they launch TikTok your name, phone number, email etc are all in the crowd.

And I buy this stuff. Every time I need customer service and I'm getting stonewalled I just go onto a marketplace, find an exec and buy their details for pennies and call them up on their cellphone. (this is usually successful, but can backfire badly -- CashApp terminated my account for this shenanigans)

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speleding ◴[03 Feb 25 08:14 UTC] No.42916052[source]▶
As a result of sales drones getting hold of my number, I have to put my phone on silent and never pick up unless I recognize the number. Very unfortunate. What if there is an emergency with my kids?
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emsixteen ◴[03 Feb 25 08:35 UTC] No.42916159[source]▶
If you're using iOS you can set certain contacts to bypass silent mode so that you still hear their notifications/calls. I know it doesn't help with unknown numbers, but just saying in case you're not aware. I'd be surprised if you can't do the same on Android.
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1. speleding ◴[03 Feb 25 09:32 UTC] No.42916514{3}[source]▶
Yes, thanks, I've configured that for kids and other loved ones. But I can't pick up anything else, even sales people from India manage to use a number that appears local (in The Netherlands for me), so I might miss a call from the kid's school.
replies(2): >>42917421 #>>42918118 #
2. bluehatbrit ◴[03 Feb 25 12:16 UTC] No.42917421[source]▶
I've just added the numbers of my kids school onto the list and it's been fine for me. I've never had them contact me from anything other than the schools number, but I'm in the UK and I would be very surprised if a teacher tried to call me from their mobile phone or something.
3. Vinnl ◴[03 Feb 25 13:42 UTC] No.42918118[source]▶
Oh wow, I knew this was a rampant problem in the US, but I didn't realise we had that at that scale here in the Netherlands as well. Hoping I can dodge the bullet a little longer...