I work for a telecom. In my country there is well regulated legislation that specifies how and when the police can ask the telecoms for cell location data, usually used for missing people.
They also provide large scale, anonymised data for crowd movement analysis. For example it was used to demonstrate how 60,000 people moved into and out of a stadium located for historical reasons in an old-fashioned, dense residential area, in preparation for the arrival of English football fans.
You also have to assume that your government has never illegally obtained data it shouldn’t have in a shady manner.
It also doesn’t bode well for what happens if your country falls into fascism, as all that data will still exist to be systematically, and retroactively used against you.
One of the good things about living in Ireland is that I’m 99% our government is neither competent enough to perpetrate elaborate crimes against its people without being exposed almost instantly, nor powerful enough that even fascists getting into government would have a meaningful impact bar providing a colourful humorous segment of the inevitable documentary on Europe’s second fall to the Axis.
This video, where Veritaseum hacks LinusTechTips’ phone, gives a good overview of how it’s possible to track cellphones or hack sms, even without asking a carrier or having physical access to the device: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyu7NB7W6Y
TLDW: cellphone networks rely on old, unsecure infrastructure
Do we know how carrier shares cell data?
In another thread, it was suggested thet “cant” just sell it like they isp traffic data for example.
Obviously the state can get it since is logged. Not sure if they would need s warrant tho
I work for a telecom. In my country there is well regulated legislation that specifies how and when the police can ask the telecoms for cell location data, usually used for missing people.
They also provide large scale, anonymised data for crowd movement analysis. For example it was used to demonstrate how 60,000 people moved into and out of a stadium located for historical reasons in an old-fashioned, dense residential area, in preparation for the arrival of English football fans.
You also have to assume that your government has never illegally obtained data it shouldn’t have in a shady manner.
It also doesn’t bode well for what happens if your country falls into fascism, as all that data will still exist to be systematically, and retroactively used against you.
One of the good things about living in Ireland is that I’m 99% our government is neither competent enough to perpetrate elaborate crimes against its people without being exposed almost instantly, nor powerful enough that even fascists getting into government would have a meaningful impact bar providing a colourful humorous segment of the inevitable documentary on Europe’s second fall to the Axis.
This video, where Veritaseum hacks LinusTechTips’ phone, gives a good overview of how it’s possible to track cellphones or hack sms, even without asking a carrier or having physical access to the device: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyu7NB7W6Y
TLDW: cellphone networks rely on old, unsecure infrastructure
I was talking specifically about how telcos behave within law and corp policy.
But yeah a threat actor with money can do anything if they really care.