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What else do we need to do in order to turn OFF reporting to Google my neighbor's wifi access points?

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arlen holder

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Apr 1, 2019, 8:08:31 PM4/1/19
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As a good Android citizen, I do NOT wish to report my neighbor's WiFi APs to Google.
<https://i.postimg.cc/PJ7TZ5qg/permission05.jpg>

What _else_ do I need to do other than the following to protect my neighbors?
1. Disagree to "Improve location accuracy" when turning on GPS "Location"
2. Set "Device sensors only" for the "Location mode"

Anything else?

Carlos E.R.

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Apr 1, 2019, 9:32:06 PM4/1/19
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I don't care.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

arlen holder

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Apr 2, 2019, 1:26:55 PM4/2/19
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On Tue, 2 Apr 2019 03:29:16 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

> I don't care.

Hi Carlos,
You wouldn't care about your neighbors.

Because you don't care about others, you send, to Google
o Every SSID within wireless distance of your device
o The BSSID & strength of that person's access point
o The coordinates of your device when you saw their SSID

Me?
o I care about my neighbors' privacy.

I don't send to Google every access point nearby.
o I just don't.

Hence, the question, where, if nobody knows better than I do,
then that's fine (because not posting an answer is better than that
child-like response that Carlos felt he needed to post).

*The question remains (where it's OK to not have a better answer):*

Q: What _else_ do we need to do to protect others' access-point privacy?
o Than disagree to "Improve location accuracy"
o When turning on GPS "Location"

Carlos E.R.

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Apr 2, 2019, 1:48:07 PM4/2/19
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On 02/04/2019 19.26, arlen holder wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Apr 2019 03:29:16 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>
>> I don't care.
>
> Hi Carlos,
> You wouldn't care about your neighbors.

It is pointless. Thousands of people with phones will pass by the street
and capture his data. Whether I do or don't has no importance. So, why
bother?

Not forgetting my neigbour own phones... which are, I know, at default
configs.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

arlen holder

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Apr 2, 2019, 2:01:13 PM4/2/19
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On Tue, 2 Apr 2019 19:47:10 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

> It is pointless. Thousands of people with phones will pass by the street
> and capture his data. Whether I do or don't has no importance. So, why
> bother?

Hi Carlos,

FACT & LOGIC:

FACT:
o I agree that it's likely "most people" have their Android set up to spy
o It could be that most people hit the "Agree" button when Google asks

LOGIC:
I wish more people would be considerate of their neighbors
o The fact is that I still wish to be considerate, even if others are not.

Hence, my question is one of "How".

> Not forgetting my neigbour own phones... which are, I know, at default
> configs.

My own access points, of which I must have a dozen, are all set up with
"nomap"; where we have to _hope_ that Google ignores them when publishing
its database to the Internet for the public API to access.

But my neighbors are the ones I'm trying to be nice to.
o Which is why I asked the question.

Carlos E.R.

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Apr 2, 2019, 9:56:06 PM4/2/19
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On 02/04/2019 20.01, arlen holder wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Apr 2019 19:47:10 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>
>> It is pointless. Thousands of people with phones will pass by the street
>> and capture his data. Whether I do or don't has no importance. So, why
>> bother?
>
> Hi Carlos,
>
> FACT & LOGIC:
>
> FACT:
> o I agree that it's likely "most people" have their Android set up to spy
> o It could be that most people hit the "Agree" button when Google asks
>
> LOGIC:
> I wish more people would be considerate of their neighbors

"Considerate" in your opinion.

Not everybody cares about google knowing where are the wifis of
everybody. I don't. If I would, I would rename my SSID in the manner you
know and that I don't remember because I don't care (ok, I have it
written somewhere, but I feel too lazy for searching it this minute).
And if my neighbours cared, they would ask me about that.

In fact, it is possible that I consider google knowing the wifis a good
thing.

> o The fact is that I still wish to be considerate, even if others are not.
>
> Hence, my question is one of "How".

I don't care :-)
Not a question I'm going to worry about.

The only thing I care is about my phone wasting battery on that - but,
as my phone uses about a quarter of the battery per day, I no longer
care to even look.

But I looked. To disable that functionality, in my phone I also disable
"weak location" service, something I will not do because then it uses
only the GPS chip (it says so) and thus more battery.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

arlen holder

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Apr 3, 2019, 3:10:53 AM4/3/19
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On Wed, 3 Apr 2019 03:53:48 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

> "Considerate" in your opinion.

Hi Carlos,
Remember, you're the one who said "I don't care", not me.
o I said I care.

> Not everybody cares about google knowing where are the wifis of
> everybody. I don't. If I would, I would rename my SSID in the manner you
> know and that I don't remember because I don't care (ok, I have it
> written somewhere, but I feel too lazy for searching it this minute).

Hi Carlos,
AFAIK, it's a royal mess, mainly because it _should_ be "opt in"
o But it's not

Worse, Microsoft uses "optout" while Google uses "_nomap"
o Where the _nomap has to be, AFAIK, at the _end_ of the SSID

So, for example, the logical SSID for "Carlos" would be:
o Carlos_optout_nomap

What Google _says_ will happen, as I recall, is that the phones that are
stupidly set up will _still_ report the four pieces of information to a
_public_ database (which allows people, anywhere in the world, to track you
by a method we've discussed in the past, if they know two pieces of data
and if they have free key from Google).

What Google _says_ they'll do is strip out the "_nomap" SSID's from the
_public_ database.

No mention on what they do with the "non public" database they may or may
not maintain.

Philosophically, I think only stupid people allow Google to spy on their
neighbors, simply because they're too lazy to say "Disagree", where I think
_most_ people are completely ignorant of what I just told you.

I think most people on _this_ ng aren't ignorant
o But I think most people don't know how easy it is to track you based on
that public API and one other bit of data (and a free key from Google).


> And if my neighbours cared, they would ask me about that.
>
> In fact, it is possible that I consider google knowing the wifis a good
> thing.

Hi Carlos,
There are pros and cons to every public database.
o The cons of the Google public database is you can be tracked

We covered this in gory detail about a year or two ago, so I won't go into
it again, but the point is that, with the public database, and one other
piece of information (and a free key from Google), they can tell if you're
at location X, or location Y, or location Z (if they know what location to
test for).

You consider that a good thing.
o I don't.

We can reasonably differ on our opinion.

>> o The fact is that I still wish to be considerate, even if others are not.
>>
>> Hence, my question is one of "How".
>
> I don't care :-)
> Not a question I'm going to worry about.

Hi Carlos,

I don't know why you bother to say "I don't care" when nobody asked you if
you care.

The question was "How".

I don't fear an empty thread.
o If nobody knows more than I do, then that's just fine.

If someone knows more than I do (like xJumper did on a recent thread)...
o Then that's even better

But for you to repeatedly say "I don't care" to a "How" question
o Is just childish (IMHO).

> The only thing I care is about my phone wasting battery on that - but,
> as my phone uses about a quarter of the battery per day, I no longer
> care to even look.

Do you care that you can be tracked by that public API?

> But I looked. To disable that functionality, in my phone I also disable
> "weak location" service, something I will not do because then it uses
> only the GPS chip (it says so) and thus more battery.

Yup.

You have three choices, where Google "bundled" the spyware into one:
o You can choose "Device Sensors Only" (aka, GPS)
o Or, Wi-Fi & cellular only bundled with Google location spying
o Or, all three, again, only bundled with Google location spying

Personally, I've been using GPS since the days of the StreetPilotIII and
laptop Copilot and Delorme pucks, where "GPS only" is just fine for me.

I don't live in a city, and there are extremely few tall buildings in the
Silicon Valley anyway (something about earthquakes), so GPS-only works just
fine for me.

Do you live in a dense urban area, where you can't get GPS signals?

Arlen Holder

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Dec 18, 2019, 5:45:44 PM12/18/19
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See also:
o Why would anyone NEED to set up the Android OS to a Google Account?
<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/0O0GLU0bFmw/8uajBMWzAgAJ>

Essentially, rude people upload your private location data to Google via
poor choices in the "location" settings of Android.

And rude people upload your private contact information to Google Servers
since they use GMail and Google Contacts on Android instead of privacy
based contact managers (e.g., SimpleMobileTools Contacts) instead:
o https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro/

--
The problem is that people who are rude are usually also stupid & lazy.
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