I’m curious, do they even sell NON smart phones anymore, without built in GPS?
Bkmrk.
I was at a hardware store earlier in the summer looking for a new grill. I talked to the sales guy for a few minutes about the grills on the floor and about one that I think was called the Big Green Egg. I had my phone with me. When I got home everytime I did a search on google I got an ad for that Green Egg grill. Everytime I went to a web site I got ads. I never searched for the grill, never looked it up or viewed a web site. I just talked to a sales guy while having my phone on my person.
All Android smartphones at least, allow you to completely turn off the “location” feature. They also have intermediate states (as accurate “location” takes a lot of power from the battery.) that provide a less accurate location service. This really isn’t a big deal anyway, as Google primarily wants to use users for marketing purposes...to see where they shop and eat....
The other option too, for the MOST paranoid, is simply to turn the phone entirely off. It cannot be tracked or turned back on from that state.
You could also take the battery entirely out....and wear tin-foil over your head, if that makes you feel better.
No google for me except to look at their maps. I use DuckDuckGO.
Many phones now have a non-removable battery. And even then, there is a certain amount of power required in order to contain data thats on tje phone such as pictures, apps and music, not to mention basic phone functions necessary to to boot the phone up even after the battery dies, or is removed.
If you don’t want to be tracked for some reason, then don’t take the phone with you.
And at home, put it where it can’t hear you at all.
One guy used his chips bag, it seemed to work fine.
We had an unexpected visit from the local constabulary early this morning while enjoying coffee on the deck off our bedroom. Seems a 911 call was traced to our address. The number making the call was not associated with anyone at our address. Seems it was made from a passing car, and the phone GPS fixed it as at our address.
Remove the GOS chip but yeah, not happening short of getting a new phone......with a GPS chip.