Purchased first smartphone.......creepy.

So I went to T-Mobile to pay my bill about 2 weeks ago and they informed me that since I have been a customer with them for 6 years and have had no phone upgrade in 3 years they would give me a free smartphone, so I jumped on it, I love new shiny gadgets, haha.

Well anyways I finally decided on the LG Optimus L9, now fast forward to 2 weeks later. I have weather widgets and local news widgets on my phone and I noticed when I drove around it always knew it exactly where I was and was giving me info on the locations I was closest too, like this app I have that shows me where the cheapest gas was would tell me exactly how many miles, feet and yards I was away from that gas station.

Well I started fooling around with the phone even more and found google maps pre-installed and low and behold it shows on google maps exactly which room i'm in inside my house!!! It was spot on accurate, there was a blue arrow over my house and when I zoomed in closer it was in the exact same part of my house that I was in, not only that when ever I would point my phone in one direction the arrow would turn to face that direction, talk about accurate and completely creepy!!

I called T-Mobile and they said the feature is there for people who have lost their phones or had them stolen. I can turn on google maps during my commute and gps follows me the whole way during my commute. Not only that I have another friend with a smartphone and she has a program that sends a signal to her husbands smartphone that takes a picture from his phone every 30 mins and sends it to her phone she knows exactly where he is and what he's up to, it also sends his location, WITHOUT HIM KNOWING AT ALL.

Like seriously, What else can these phones do that I still don't know about, I was told that they don't just use GPS to track my phone either, they also log my movements through wifi and cell towers. WTF? Why haven't I heard this before and why aren't people outraged!

reply to post by Uniceft17


How does the picture go? Why so serious?

GPS with wifi is pretty accurate. It's only going to get better from there. The reason wifi helps is that they've gone around your neighborhood with trucks plotting out the locations of your wifi access points with a really accurate gps receiver for a reference.

Had 802.15.3a come out, you would have been locatable to a few cm.

reply to post by Uniceft17


got to ask is it the phone that's smart or its users

reply to post by Uniceft17

There was a service I used while trucking and I cannot recall the name..someone else may know it now, but it tied into Google Latitude for the phone tracking. It was free as of a couple years ago when I got off the road. What it did was keep a running track of phone movement over days, weeks and months on few minute intervals. You could set that part as I recall. Anyway, I could see in a glance when I've been to one produce shed or another or what week I went to Seattle instead of Los Angeles to deliver ...and every mile of whatever roads and stops I did along the way.

I kept it and kept it very quiet so I had a 3rd party reference at all times to support my own testimony if I got jacked up on something where it came down to a he-said/she-said on where my truck was at any given time. (Trucks have satellite communication, but ours was the cheapie version..not Qualcomm. It tracked by ZIP code...and let me tell ya, some Zip code traces put me in the whole wrong STATE when I was out in the western deserts)

Just another idea .. OH and Google Latitude will let you share your GPS position with anyone you give permission through that to view. You can even have it load through Google maps on a simple URL. I had 3 different zoom levels for my family when I was on the road for 15 minute update intervals. National map, State map and about a 50 mile radius zoom. So my wife and kid could see where I was any time they got curious.

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


Lol, The phone is EXTREMELY useful, just don't like my location being transmitted every second of everyday over the net and God only knows what else. Anyone could take advantage of that.

You can turn GPS Locator off as well as other safety features, just know that most apps won't work correctly without a location.

Check your settings and go to GPS/Location.

Apps > Google Settings > Location > Let Google apps access your location |OFF|

Im not surpriced. I wonder what app you downloaded as i have been thinking of getting android phone for my kid 9 years old as he has type 1 diabetes and its very important to me to know where he is and next grade his school day is a bit longer and distant between school and home is also longer. Also couple danger areas like river and lake.

I found this app im curious of yours as it seems to be so accurate.

interesting tracking capabilities a sniper could use that to shoot right through a side of a wall of a house of a target .

Makes identifying suspects of a riot or even protesters as simple storing the information of data with movement with a name and address .

nice little tool if the government wants to crack down when the economy tanks , fema camps are there for a reason

Originally posted by Uniceft17
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

Lol, The phone is EXTREMELY useful, just don't like my location being transmitted every second of everyday over the net and God only knows what else. Anyone could take advantage of that.

Cops can look at it without a warrant, IIRC. Just need your number. I've seen some of them looking at locations of people for fun. I suppose if I had a phone I had the code to, I could have it return any damn thing I wanted for a location, that could be fun.

reply to post by Uniceft17


Throw it in the Pond.
Good Riddance to that nasty little lump of coal.

Do it now before it is too late.

reply to post by Wildmanimal


I agree 100%. OP unplug yourself from that matrix while its still fresh.

Those things are to keep tabs on you and dumb you down. If you think Big Brother is your friend then don't worry about it, otherwise you need to get rid of it.

reply to post by Uniceft17


OP, get google sky maps, it will blow your mind, as it shows what where in the heavens in real time, including current and future coments meteor showers, ecliptic plane, planetary orbits etc..... very sweet.

Here is a thread I started about a new map of the internet app, it is a great time killer to play around with.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I can sugest many more apps if you would like some time waters or other cool nick nack apps to fiddle with.

Welcome to the smart phone world, it is a fun place, they are amazing.

I hope you enjoy.

Originally posted by freedomSlave
interesting tracking capabilities a sniper could use that to shoot right through a side of a wall of a house of a target .

or a drone!

This has been in smartphones for the better part of 5 years now, welcome to the future. OP you can turn off GPS tracking at anytime through the settings. Google maps will be pre-installed because its an android platform, you should have a "Google" package when you get the phone. It will have Maps, a navigator, the Play Store, Google+ Gmail and a couple of other things. There is no way to avoid this, unless you root your phone and install your own OS.

Originally posted by Uniceft17
Why haven't I heard this before and why aren't people outraged!

People have been lulled into complacency over these "benefits" and that has caused them to forget or ignore the potential misuse by others who may wish to harm you.

And yes, the dangers of this technology has been talked about for years, even here on ATS but the Government Propaganda Machine is good at making people forget.

This is by design. They always tout the benefits of security to people like with the RFID chips they are trying to push. One day, they will have convinced the people those chips are a good thing and people will be standing in line to get them implanted. Through those chips they will be able to know your entire financial transaction information, your health and medical coverage status, where you live, how many kids and pets you have and even your favorite drink.

Mark of the Beast anyone?

A friend of ours came home one evening and someone was stealing the trailer with the lawn mower and other stuff on it. He followed them and called 911, as he was on the phone with them the operator told him, we have you clocked at 120 in an 80 if you don't stop pursuit we will charge you, with dangerous driving.
They never got his trailer and stuff back. Personally I would of threw the phone out window and picked it up later, but that's me not him!


What happened to my avatar? I only see half of it!

Originally posted by Uniceft17
Not only that I have another friend with a smartphone and she has a program that sends a signal to her husbands smartphone that takes a picture from his phone every 30 mins and sends it to her phone she knows exactly where he is and what he's up to, it also sends his location, WITHOUT HIM KNOWING AT ALL.

I give that relationship less time that it will take for the phone to go out of date.

CX.

Your friend and her man sound like they have a great relationship full of trust and respect.

That aside.....i am kind of iffy about smartphones. Seeing Windows 8 just ticked me off even more. I am concerned that they will destroy the concept of "power user" on home PC's by dumbing down the expectation of interface to a point that Windows 9 looks identical to Andriod, with its own marketplace to leech off our wallets.

I think it was Hefficide that wrote a threat about the above. Like he was reading my mind.

Originally posted by lightmere
A friend of ours came home one evening and someone was stealing the trailer with the lawn mower and other stuff on it. He followed them and called 911, as he was on the phone with them the operator told him, we have you clocked at 120 in an 80 if you don't stop pursuit we will charge you, with dangerous driving.
They never got his trailer and stuff back. Personally I would of threw the phone out window and picked it up later, but that's me not him!


What happened to my avatar? I only see half of it!

edit on 5-4-2013 by lightmere because: Avatar

Click the link in my signature. Agarta has a post on the first page that will help you out on the avatar issue.