the.com/location tracking
your phone snitches on you constantly, and you're the one who signed the confession.
means the practice of recording where a device (and presumably its owner) is or has been, usually via gps, wifi, or cell towers.
from grew out of 1970s military gps satellites, went civilian in the 1990s, then exploded when smartphones made everyone a walking beacon after 2007.
accuracy todaygps can pinpoint you within about 3 meters
passive collectionapps track location even when closed, via wifi scans
ad industry secretlocation data sold to brokers, often anonymized poorly
battery tellconstant gps pinging is why your phone gets hot
for instance
find my iphone — apple, launched 2010, now tracks airtags too
strava heatmap — 2018 leak exposed secret military bases via jogging routes
google location history — quietly logged timeline data for over a decade before 2024 opt-out shift
life360 — family tracking app with 50+ million users worldwide