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

(timsh.org)
1957 points apokryptein | 8 comments | 02 Feb 25 17:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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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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1. casenmgreen ◴[03 Feb 25 10:16 UTC] No.42916764[source]▶
I stopped keeping a mobile number many years ago.

Phone is wifi only.

In particular, I do not use the contacts functionality built into the phone.

(This is /e/OS, which helps, but I'll be moving to Mobian as soon as it is viable.)

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2. skrebbel ◴[03 Feb 25 11:49 UTC] No.42917266[source]▶
What do you do when the car repairman wants to call/text you when the car is finished? Or any other similar situations?
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3. secondcoming ◴[03 Feb 25 13:14 UTC] No.42917877[source]▶
How do you do online banking?
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4. gausswho ◴[03 Feb 25 14:34 UTC] No.42918556[source]▶
Given the rampant privacy abuse on phones, I use a laptop.
5. gausswho ◴[03 Feb 25 14:35 UTC] No.42918569[source]▶
I use VOIP numbers for that. One per business.
6. casenmgreen ◴[03 Feb 25 15:00 UTC] No.42918815[source]▶
Laptop, running over Tor.

I use cash for all physical payments; never the card. I use the card to withdraw cash, once a month.

I very rarely buy on-line, because I stopped using Amazon (treatment of warehouse staff) and buying off of Amazon is hell on toast.

7. casenmgreen ◴[03 Feb 25 15:01 UTC] No.42918830[source]▶
No car.

But in general, email.

I can make calls from my phone/laptop, using VOIP.

I could receive as well if I wanted to, but I rarely need to be called, so I do not normally keep a number, and I could not be called when out and about anyway, because wifi-only, but you do get an answerphone, so people can leave a message.

8. oldherl ◴[03 Feb 25 16:16 UTC] No.42919735[source]▶
You are very lucky. In China, virtually all websites are required by law to use your phone number (verified by SMS) to register and/or to use. And all numbers must be linked to your ID.