Are we all handing to Google the SSID of our home routers?

Yes, they *did* get it from you. You just don't realize/remember it.

That you may have *changed* it since then is quite another matter.

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Reply to
Frank Slootweg
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Frank Slootweg schrieb am 2016-02-10 um 20:19:

Or just turn off the backup function in the respective settings.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

Alice J. schrieb am 2016-02-10 um 17:37:

Nothing which you want to keep, as you neither buy apps, nor use any of the cloud functions (purchased apps, backup/restore of device configuration etc.).

Sure - since you never buy one.

You personally? Nothing.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

Alice J. schrieb am 2016-02-10 um 18:02:

And you don't think that it is a nice gesture to donate for the work of the people who created OSMAnd and keep the infrastructure running?

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Which is in fact "GPS Status & Toolbox".

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And this is also available as a "full version" with additional features:

"PAID ONLY: Redirecting to and from your computer via SMB"

[...]

I don't think so, since my needs are not just having some apps which somehow provide the functionality I need.

I also work as a software developer and maintain an app which is published on Play Store as well:

This wouldn't just be possible by deleting and creating an account all the time.

No. You just look for freeware, nothing else.

See above.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

Now come on. Google have this database to help our devices locate themselves when there is no GPS signal (indoors mainly). We can also tell that devices don't send info about location of WiFi they can receive very often because people would have complained about their data limit being slowly used up as they move around! Google would also be mad to immediately add any info they received in to any database; they will wait until several independent devices have reported it at the same location and no other location for at least a few days.

They're not stupid and they're going to make it work as a way for devices to locate themselves from WiFi signals not as anything else.

You'll have to demonstrate that before I believe it.

Reply to
Brian Gregory

What version of Android are you running?

Some of those apps only run on ancient versions that are very dangerous now since they are full of nasty known vulnerabilities.

Reply to
Brian Gregory

You haven't proved that they can track me at all. It's just a conclusion your brain cell jumped to after applying itself for a short moment.

Firstly I'm not stupid enough to walk around with the access point enabled on phone.

Also as I have said elsewhere Google clearly wouldn't be stupid enough to try and keep the database up to date as I move around. It'd be a pointless waste of bandwidth and/or would lead to the feature they are trying to create (the ability for devices to locate themselves when sheltered from GPS signals) being completely unreliable. They will obviously only put BSSIDs that seem to be in fixed locations in to their location database.

Reply to
Brian Gregory

I think the original recommendation was to use the same SSID and MAC address on all wireless _routers._ This is certainly different than what you just explained and would/could cause a client to try to jump from one access point to another only to be disconnected because of the different (hopefully) wireless passwords.

Mike "and hilarity will ensue" Yetto

Reply to
Mike Yetto

Agreed.

I was intending to respond to:

AJ> I was thinking that we clone MAC addresses on the router all the AJ> time and it causes no problem.

Reply to
Brian Gregory

I agree with Frank that even for phones in WiFi hotspot mode, google aren't likely to enter their locations into the MAC database unless they don't ever move around, that would weaken the purpose of the database.

It's not a high level of skill to follow an API that is designed to give a position from the MAC addresses of two or more access points, it's not as though I hacked something to subvert its real purpose.

But how does someone know the MAC addresses of your router unless they're within sight of your house in the first place? It's not "personal" information.

Not very likely IMHO, why would she constantly have hotspot enabled? she'd likely notice the high battery drain if suspecting hubby surreptitiously enabled it ... easier for him to stick a GPS tracker under her car, or look at the google maps location history of her phone (if he knows her google password).

Reply to
Andy Burns

Do those settings stick when 'she' continuously deletes and adds Google Play accounts?

Reply to
Frank Slootweg

The "Pro" version of RealCalc is one of the few Android apps I have actually bought ... not because the Pro version does anything I wanted that the free version doesn't, but because I want to reward the programmers for producing something that is genuinely useful and productive, and for offering it at no cost for those who are unable or unwilling to pay, and IN PARTICULAR for not succumbing to the temptation to make it adware.

It cost me about half the price of a beer. If I have a problem with that it is that it is too little.

It shouldn't be about what you can get without paying, it should be about giving something to reward those who have created something you use, that makes your life easier or better or more pleasurable.

.. though I must admit that I do appreciate the fact that the pro version works in landscape mode.

Reply to
Daniel James

a few years ago, there was some Apple data backed up by iTunes that "exposed" locations. I analyzed the data, coincidentally including a trip to Disneyland. it definitely showed that we were somewhere adjacent to I-5, and even that we were somewhere near Disneyland. Around home, it was not fine enough to know what street we were on, much less whose bedroom.

querying a Google database for someone else's MAC location used to be allowed, but is no longer. And it was only ever access points, not the attached clients.

Reply to
dold

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