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

(timsh.org)
1957 points apokryptein | 1 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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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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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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1. 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.