I thought I understood the extent to which the broad availability of mobile location data has exacerbated countless privacy and security challenges. That is, until I was invited along with four other publications to be a virtual observer in a 2-week test run of Babel Street, a service that lets users draw a digital polygon around nearly any location on a map of the world, and view a time-lapse history of the mobile devices seen coming in and out of the area.
The issue isn't that there's some dodgy company offering this as a poorly-vetted service: It's that *anyone* willing to spend a little money can now build this capability themselves.
I'll be updating this story with links to reporting from other publications also invited, including 404 Media, Haaretz, NOTUS, and The New York Times. All of these stories will make clear that mobile location data is set to massively complicate several hot-button issues, from the tracking of suspected illegal immigrants or women seeking abortions, to harassing public servants who are already in the crosshairs over baseless conspiracy theories and increasingly hostile political rhetoric against government employees.
krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/th…
The Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data
Not long ago, the ability to remotely track someone’s daily movements just by knowing their home address, employer, or place of worship was considered a powerful surveillance tool that should only be in the purview of nation states. But a…krebsonsecurity.com
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •And all three of those options either give me the regular non-dark theme, or the new Brown theme.
None give me the Grey Dark Theme, the one I get when I'm logged out.
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Grabbed a tablet: logged in or out over there gives me the grey theme (Although it looks bluish there, which could mean everything or nothing).
Possibly important note: the tablet is logged into a different Google account
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •I also tried applying the "color palette" feature (which was off) to make my whole OS pink and blue. Still brown.
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •You should have one, not multiple intricately nested ones, but I fully understand why it's not easy to make it work that way.
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •For my final test, I need to wait until it's "a time Google thinks I should be awake" in my timezone, because right now my leading theory is that Google is applying their own blue-light-filter by switching into a second THIRD SEARCH SKIN based on the current timezone + location.
And when I log out*/use private browsing/use incognito: it doesn't know my location to personalize it to.
*haven't actually tried logging out, just private modes. I hope that is not an oversight.
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •It is way too "I have been awake for 20 hours" for me to attempt logging back into my Google account without accidentally deleting everything and forgetting all my passwords and my mother's maiden name*.
* hey what if I have two dads, neither of which changed their name? It's the 90s, it's possible! These poor kids can never have a quite-shitty password-reminder!
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •The repeat specific behaviors, turning in place, waving, pecking at a specific spot on the floor...
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •It's like a lucky pair of pants you always wear when your team wins.
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •In both cases, there's no action that leads to the win condition, and no information to accurately predict the outcome.
But both our brains and the pigeon's brain don't work like that. They assume there are patterns and tries to find them. They assume it's not just all random and unpredictable.
That's usually a good thing! It clearly is very useful, for both us and pigeons, to figure out the patterns... because usually there are!
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Many things are related and predictable. Basic physics for example: if a thing is in the air, it will fall down. Get out of the way.
Definitely a pattern there!
(Although you may need to adjust for the "flying" loophole)
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •That's why we evolved a "pattern finding" brain. Because there's patterns in the world, and recognizing them is useful.
Anyway, I think of those pigeons, spinning in place, perhaps praying to some God of Food Pellets they invented, and how they don't know there's no pattern and all there actions are meaningless. The cruel scientist man built this game so you can't win, and worse: you don't know you can't win, so you have to keep trying.
Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •Foone🏳️⚧️
in reply to Foone🏳️⚧️ • • •