How does googles network work I assumed every phone know its own location and can relay location of nearby devices combined with multiple devices and some triangulation and maybe WiFi ssid tracking u can locate almost anything. Now that raises the major concern mainly google will know the location of every single device I'm sure its doing Bluetooth scanning so I doubt even I on graphene will be getting tracked. Surly there is a better decentralised anonymous solution here.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 months ago

Not sure if google is particularly different but the way this works for the other services is basically low energy bluetooth scanning coupled with the phones providing their location*. So basically all the devices on that scanning/spy network periodically ping/listen for nearby devices/trackers. When it finds one, it sends a quick message to the servers with that phone's location and the ID of the tracker. Get enough of those pings and you can triangulate the position of the tracker pretty precisely.

Which... is why this fundamentally does not work with "hacker" solutions that allegedly emphasize privacy. Because you just don't have enough devices listening. This was painfully obvious with tile back in the day and is still an issue with Samsung in some countries.

*: Via a combination of gps, cell tower, and wifi network scanning. The less obvious part of that being wifi networks which is the majority of how interior positioning works.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago (3 children)

do you have your Bluetooth enabled at all times?

[–] efstajas@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Vast majority of people do, and on iOS and Android these days turning it "off" really just keeps it from connecting to peripherals. It's still scanning even when "off".

[–] optissima@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Turning off your bluetooth doesn't mean it's off until you turn it on ~~Bluetooth is on at all times~~ on modern androids/iOS, as of android 13 due to location services features.

Edit, inaccurate phrasing on my part

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

any sources?

[–] optissima@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Hmm the article I read about it previously seems to be eluding me, I'm going to keep looking for it. From what I remember of the other article, the short of it is, in android, location services can turn on your bluetooth at any point and does every time it gets pinged by google without you turning it on, and they are rolling out a new feature to automatically turn it back on next version. Here's an adjacent article that talks about one of the future android features, where you can have your phone found even when powered off, and that is using location services, which does involve bluetooth.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

where you can have your phone found even when powered off, and that is using location services, which does involve bluetooth.

at that time they should just stop using the term "power off"

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah i dont have the band with to toggle it for my headphones/car every time i use them. Idk if graphene has a better implementation tho if anyone knows pls let me know.