An amazing bit of digital detective work here. Seems like Linux mobile is your only off ramp from being exhaustively tracked

  • hera@feddit.uk
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    10 hours ago

    All HTTP requests include your ip address, you don’t “consent” to giving it to anybody. You can geolocate somebody based on ip address but it won’t be very accurate

    • Ulrich@feddit.org
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      4 hours ago

      but it won’t be very accurate

      Which they actually acknowledge in the blog post.

      Kind of interesting that they’re smart enough to understand how to sniff packets but not enough to understand that IP address = location.

        • Ulrich@feddit.org
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          4 hours ago

          So use a trustworthy middleman? Surely you can find someone more trustworthy than advertising companies?

        • 1984@lemmy.today
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          8 hours ago

          You can set up wireguard vpn on a tiny instance in Amazon or Google, and bounce traffic through that one. Then you control what gets logged (Amazon may have logs over all outgoing connections from all instances somewhere though).

          You can even make it change it’s public ip every day if you want.

      • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        This problem solved, but whenever you change your network or IP and then periodically, your phone will report to Firebase, so you can receive push notifications.

        You can block those with software that simulates a local VPN with a filter, but you won’t get any more push notifications. Now push notifications are not just the ones you see. Some apps use invisible ones to get infos they need to work.

      • forrgott@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        Not the magic bullet people think they are. Oh, and you can’t turn it off, so you’ll have to take the loss in network speed on absolutely everything. And better know how to configure each device so it doesn’t go ahead and check leak your IP anyways, which also restricts choice of devices you use. Cause remember, if any device on your network ever connects to the net without the VPN, then your anonymity just went out the window.

        • Ulrich@feddit.org
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          4 hours ago

          Not the magic bullet people think they are.

          No one thinks VPNs are “magic bullets”. I don’t know why this gets repeated ad nauseum.

          Oh, and you can’t turn it off, so you’ll have to take the loss in network speed on absolutely everything.

          True but it’s not that bad.

          And better know how to configure each device so it doesn’t go ahead and check leak your IP anyways

          Just choose a good provider. You don’t need to configure anything.

          if any device on your network ever connects to the net without the VPN, then your anonymity just went out the window.

          That’s what kill switches are for.

          • forrgott@lemm.ee
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            4 hours ago

            I agree it’s a powerful tool! I was specifically responding to “problem solved” in the previous comment. My reply was in no way meant as a general review of VPNs.

      • Richard@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        That VPN provider will then know ALL the connections you make. Almost worse than just using the Internet normally.