How does grapheneos prevent this

Irishandnew

Hi
I'm new to grapheneos and when I saw the article below, I was curious to understand how gos prevents this.

https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2025/0918/1534034-data-for-sale/

Thanks

r134a

Irishandnew GrapheneOS doesn't log your location, and certainly doesn't sell it.

However when u install an app, and allow it location services, there is nothing GOS can do about that if u want working location services available for that app.

As per the article:

They also noted that the smartphone owners would have given permission for the sale of the location data through the terms and conditions of installed apps.

So in these cases, it is entitely out of scope of GrapheneOS if u 1) installed a untrustworthy app in the first place, 2) allowed it location permission.
Not condoming these practices in any way though, should be illegal. But to answer your question on 'how GOS prevents this', it is only the user who could prevent installing a untrustworthy app and allow it location permissions.
Some hygiene is key here, and i expect most of GOS user is perfecrtly aware of that.

secrec

Irishandnew A key piece of that article is the statement "The companies trading the data did not identify from which apps the location information is compiled." -- what that sounds like to me is that users are installing some application that is recording their locations and sharing it with these data brokers.

Therefore GrapheneOS doesn't necessarily do ANYTHING to prevent this, however it does provide you with tools that you can use to reduce or eliminate this tracking, such as denying network communications to suspect applications.

Note: Google services DEFAULT to sharing your moment by moment location with Google. There are settings somewhere to disable this behavior, which I can't help you find since I do NOT use google services at all. Whether this setting stops it from sending your location to google or just stopping them from recording it is beyond my knowledge, and whether you trust that they ACTUALLY stop recording your location is another big issue.

When it comes to GOOGLE tracking your location, GrapheneOS also helps with this, since (a) you have the choice if you want to run their software, and (b) google services on GrapheneOS are restricted as any other user-installed software is, which gives you the option of reducing the permissions it has to do things.

de0u

Irishandnew https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2025/0918/1534034-data-for-sale/

Good article. Thanks!

One thing I liked about it was that it made it clear that "anonymous" location tracks aren't really anonymous when they start and end at your home every day.

Irishandnew

r134a

Thanks for that.

Ultimately its only as strong as the weakest user.

If users stick to trustworthy apps and deny location (and disable WiFi scanning ) for others that don't require location it to work ...then that would go a long way to mitigate this behaviour.

Unfortunately so many average Joe's are content with their out of the box spying device

r134a

Irishandnew i completely agree, it is unfortunate these practices take place. They should be illegal with severe consequenses as they are a major invasion of ones privacy.

I can imagine some less tech savy older family members being present in such database, without understanding the consequeses or being aware at all. Which honestly boils my blood. It shouldn't be the default nor expected from everyone to apply some 'healthy' paranoia to each step they take in the digital world. But currently it is what it is.
GOS by default out of the box provides more privacy than other other mobile OS'es, but in case of the example above, there is not much GOS could do.

nologo

The case of Strava, a well known app probably considered to be trustworthy by most users, provides an interesting example of what can go wrong: https://www.archyde.com/strava-data-breach-user-information-exposed-again/

Irishandnew

nologo

Thanks for that. It's another great example.

This type of 'helpful' technology is dangerous in the wrong hands

DeletedUser495

This looks like it more applies to inherent cell tower triangulation from network operators. Any such operator who aids selling location data of their users to third parties should be blamed and shamed and subjected to penalties that would financially prevent them from doing such activities.

Irishandnew

DeletedUser495

Spot on. There needs to be massive disincentives for this practice. Id imagine plenty of 3 letter agencies have this data at their fingertips. But the arrogance of others to openly sell it is unreal !

Irishandnew

r134a

Thanks again for your reply.

It seems to me that we would require some near world ending catastrophe caused by technology before people took a step back and thought about it.

Many just want and easy life, and big tech/some app developers see this as their opportunity to exploit them

r134a

Irishandnew Many just want and easy life, and big tech/some app developers see this as their opportunity to exploit them

There is much money involved, reflecting those practices unfortunately. When i still was at uni, 'big data was the new oil'. Perhaps AI is the new oil now, not sure, nevertheless it still is a massive market. Technology moves so fast, that legislation often can't keep up. I think partially the problem lays there. I hope legislation in the future will at least severly limit data collection that certain 'businesses' collect today. Although i don't have much hope for the data collected by (certain) governments, this certainly doesn't look good as of now. Perhaps some 'businesses' are being 'allowed' said data collection so that governments can 'profit' from said data aswell.
1984 starts to seem less and less fictional, but thats just my opinion.

Nevertheless, i'm drifting away from the topic and don't want to steer this into a political discussion.

Irishandnew

r134a

I'm on the same page as you on this.

I believe the way the data selling ends is if people become more cautious. If the lions share of users restrict unnecessary permissions to apps, then there will be little data to sell.

Im not sure if google sell it to NSA/CIA or if they just hand it over lol. That won't ever stop until people embrace degoodling on a large scale, which I feel is unlikely.

Irishandnew

secrec

Thanks secrec

I wouldn't take Google's word for it myself. That's why I choose graphene os. Its the perfect example of how Android phone can run just fine without layers and layers of tracking !

Irishandnew

de0u

Its shameful isn't it. You can imagine the Vienne diagram they have created for all users and who they interact with !

schweizer

This is daily business in most countries. In online advertising you can pin your client within meters and seconds. Advertisment is shown only if you are within a specific region. The place where you spend most of your nights is your residence which is relevant for political ads. They know how you commute and where you work.

The tracking is done with news apps. It does not work if you read the same newspaper in a browser. Most users have location enabled all the time and grant it to all the apps who request it.

So if you care switch off location unless you need it. And if something works in a browser it is the better option to use it there instead of the app.