I keep all location services turned off on my Android device – unless I have a good use case, e.g., I’m in a strange town/city and I need to know where I am on the map. So, I figured I should be safe from the privacy violation(s) described in this article. Then I got to the section that reported about the tracking of Android users by “collecting the addresses of nearby cellphone towers”. :( Even though “Google changed the practice and insisted it never recorded the data anyway”, it appears that just carrying any Android device comes with the cost of ongoing background location tracking.
I’ve long accepted that carrying any kind of mobile phones allows mobile operators and state actors to track one’s location – but it seems to be a constant battle for citizens to understand how they might minimise the scope and quantity of personal data being harvested by large tech companies. I don’t know enough about the letter of the law but this kind of surreptitious location monitoring (via mis-leading options when Location History is turned off) seems to violate the spirit of the GDPR.
Pretty sure determining your location via the signal strength of nearby cell towers is a feature of Location Services, so if you have that turned off you're fine.
I’ve long accepted that carrying any kind of mobile phones allows mobile operators and state actors to track one’s location – but it seems to be a constant battle for citizens to understand how they might minimise the scope and quantity of personal data being harvested by large tech companies. I don’t know enough about the letter of the law but this kind of surreptitious location monitoring (via mis-leading options when Location History is turned off) seems to violate the spirit of the GDPR.