Your phone did NOT use GPS location. Instead it used CELL TOWER location. GPS stands for Global Positioning System, and uses US military satellites. The exact same satellites the US uses to target missiles.
Your phone never communicated with the GPS satellites that orbit the planet. Instead it communicated with cell towers on the ground.
That is why the network location appeared 'much less precise' and "bounces around a lot'.
Certain areas, such as the entire country of South Korea, are legally forbidden from using GPS style location determination. They are afraid an invading army/missile will use it for targeting.
They put a lock on such services based on geography.
But the lock is not perfect, it uses a grid to determine which areas are GPS allowable and which are not.
The grid is supposed to exclude all of South Korea, but a small town happens to be just outside of their grid. So GPS devices work there.
Pokemon Go requires access to your GPS as part of the game (or rather, they designed the game to need access to your GPS so they can get your geolocation for advertising purposes).
As such, you can't play Pokemon Go in South Korea, EXCEPT in that one small village.
They are trying to subvert the foundations of capitalism - ownership.
They are abusing the DMCA - a badly designed law that was created to stop IP theft but has instead become a weapon of fraud to trick people into paying ownership prices for what in reality is merely renting.
It's like if you go to buy a house and you pay $800k, up front, expecting to be able to get a mortgage, leave the place to your kids, and sell it if you have to, only to be told later that you merely rented the place for your life time.
Fraud is fraud - whether it is done by outright lies, or instead by hidden fine print in contracts, that no one but lawyer reads
I am fine with that - most of the shmucks that ask for numbers like this use robo callers. I should make quite a profit from robo callers ignoring my warning.
As in, I would love to get a phone number that is 'premium' and then give it out to every website that keeps asking for a phone number.
Slime keep trying to steal my privacy in exchange for nothing. They abuse the phone number and have no business asking for it. If they want my phone so badly, then PAY every time you call me. After all, I never want you to call me, so why shouldn't you pay to talk to me?
I really liked the south park episode where they Apple tried to teach people not to do that by putting in permission for a human centipede.
The honest truth is those contracts are full of worthless lies intended to trick the unwary that are not aware that contracts can't make you give up certain rights.
We need to change the system to discourage/eliminate the TOS bullshit. I think that all TOS should be illegal unless they were fully negotiated by lawyers on BOTH sides - or approved by a federal agency as something that a citizen can understand and agree to without a lawyer.
The police are not allowed to impersonate anyone they want. They can not impersonate your lawyer, and nor can they impersonate your phone company or ISP in order to gain access to your tech.
They can impersonate a generic criminal, but they are not for example allowed to impersonate you and ask a bank teller to tell them about all of your recent transactions.
To do those things requires a warrant (well, except impersonating your lawyer, that is always illegal, you can't get a warrant to do it.)
Your base assumption is false, the police do not have blanket powers to lie to you. There are very specific rules about how and when police can lie. They can not for example lie and tell you that they are your lawyer. Nor can they, If your lawyer is present and they make an offer, claim "we were lying when we offered you immunity in exchange for testimony".
They are also not allowed to disable your internet, knock on your door and say "I am from your ISP, here to fix your internet" unless they have a warrant.
That situation seems to me to be the most direct comparison of a sting ray. They are preventing your phone from interacting with the network and instead pretending to be that network.
That is radically different from passively listening.
They had access to personal, private information, they should have encrypted it.
Encrypting it does not fundamentally alter it, anymore than making taking a shirt and folding it so that it fits inside an evidence bag fundamentally alters it.
Should they be punished for doing so? Yes. But it should not invalidate their case. Fine them $100 per suspect, and let the evidence in to court.
If they can fire 94% of their workforce without impacting their production, that means their Union was being very evil and insisting paying people do not work. Not 20%, not 50%, not 80%, but 94%. The Union was despicable.
The new business owners are doing a good job if they can cut their workforce by 94% and still keep their production up.
People are entitled to good paying, safe jobs, not to "make work."
I always hated that that quote ignores the unknown knowns. (Things we know, but don't know we know) They are often the most important things - and things we don't write down until after someone asks us "how did you do that?"
The reason they are putting it on by default is that only 5-10% of their audience was requesting things be blocked.
Instead of admitting that their customers DID NOT WANT THIS CRAP, they decided to expand it by making it default
News flash, when only 5-10% of your target audience wants something, that means you should discontinue it, not force everyone else to use it - and worse, create a 'pervert' list of people that refused to accept your censorship.
So now they are pissing off over 80% of their customers because
They listed a ton of brands. I think it would be easier to do a list of hoverboards that are NOT proven fire hazards, rather than the other way around.
Also is there some reason those lithium batteries only went into hoverboards? Or did some go into other devices - and are those other devices safe?
After all, it's not the wheels or actual standing area that's the problem.
They need the organs in as good shape as possible. So when your heart stops beating, instead of simply saying "Time of death...." and walking away, they hook you up to machines that keep your body alive and functioning, till they come in and cut everything out.
That seems to be an indictment of your hospital (or possibly your wife) rather than the entire system.
Among other things, hospitals put MORE effort to saving organ donors than they do for non-organ donors. They want the organs in as best condition as possible.
This kind of thought demonstrates ignorance. it's based on the false belief that somehow, the organ donors get WORSE treatment than dead people.
The truth is that if you can't respond but could recover, and are not a an organ donor, they simply pull the plug and let you die. Then they bury the organs you worked so hard to prevent other people from getting.
It takes more than simply not responding to get you marked as dead.
The number of people that a) can't respond, yet b) can still live if they pull the plug are remarkably small.
If you are an organ donor, then they take extra steps to make sure you are really dead.
So being an organ donor makes it LESS likely that you will be killed (by turning off the machines), rather than more.
Slashdot Mirror
Your phone did NOT use GPS location. Instead it used CELL TOWER location. GPS stands for Global Positioning System, and uses US military satellites. The exact same satellites the US uses to target missiles.
Your phone never communicated with the GPS satellites that orbit the planet. Instead it communicated with cell towers on the ground.
That is why the network location appeared 'much less precise' and "bounces around a lot'.
And yes, wifi location
Certain areas, such as the entire country of South Korea, are legally forbidden from using GPS style location determination. They are afraid an invading army/missile will use it for targeting.
They put a lock on such services based on geography.
But the lock is not perfect, it uses a grid to determine which areas are GPS allowable and which are not.
The grid is supposed to exclude all of South Korea, but a small town happens to be just outside of their grid. So GPS devices work there.
Pokemon Go requires access to your GPS as part of the game (or rather, they designed the game to need access to your GPS so they can get your geolocation for advertising purposes).
As such, you can't play Pokemon Go in South Korea, EXCEPT in that one small village.
So, you are complaining about gate-gate? But wait, I am complaining about your complaint.
Does that make me a gate-gate-gater? :D
They are trying to subvert the foundations of capitalism - ownership.
They are abusing the DMCA - a badly designed law that was created to stop IP theft but has instead become a weapon of fraud to trick people into paying ownership prices for what in reality is merely renting.
It's like if you go to buy a house and you pay $800k, up front, expecting to be able to get a mortgage, leave the place to your kids, and sell it if you have to, only to be told later that you merely rented the place for your life time.
Fraud is fraud - whether it is done by outright lies, or instead by hidden fine print in contracts, that no one but lawyer reads
Cripes, it's an open carry state, with an open carry believers, for a candidate that encouraged his followers to beat up protestors.
If some one doesn't take a shot at them, then they will take a shot at the protestors.
I would offer odds, 2:1 that someone attending the convention or a protesting against the convention will end up trying to shoot someone
I am fine with that - most of the shmucks that ask for numbers like this use robo callers. I should make quite a profit from robo callers ignoring my warning.
As in, I would love to get a phone number that is 'premium' and then give it out to every website that keeps asking for a phone number.
Slime keep trying to steal my privacy in exchange for nothing. They abuse the phone number and have no business asking for it. If they want my phone so badly, then PAY every time you call me. After all, I never want you to call me, so why shouldn't you pay to talk to me?
Why people can pay cash and be totally untraceable!
Tor, bitcoin and cash also hinder government oppression based on race, religion, gender, sexuality, politics, economics, etc. etc.
I really liked the south park episode where they Apple tried to teach people not to do that by putting in permission for a human centipede.
The honest truth is those contracts are full of worthless lies intended to trick the unwary that are not aware that contracts can't make you give up certain rights.
We need to change the system to discourage/eliminate the TOS bullshit. I think that all TOS should be illegal unless they were fully negotiated by lawyers on BOTH sides - or approved by a federal agency as something that a citizen can understand and agree to without a lawyer.
Here is an arstechnica article reporting on a judge ruling that the "cut the internet, then claim to fix it" lie is illegal:
Arstechnica story
and here is a link to the official ruling:
arstechnica hosted court ruling.
The police are not allowed to impersonate anyone they want. They can not impersonate your lawyer, and nor can they impersonate your phone company or ISP in order to gain access to your tech.
They can impersonate a generic criminal, but they are not for example allowed to impersonate you and ask a bank teller to tell them about all of your recent transactions.
To do those things requires a warrant (well, except impersonating your lawyer, that is always illegal, you can't get a warrant to do it.)
Your base assumption is false, the police do not have blanket powers to lie to you. There are very specific rules about how and when police can lie. They can not for example lie and tell you that they are your lawyer. Nor can they, If your lawyer is present and they make an offer, claim "we were lying when we offered you immunity in exchange for testimony".
They are also not allowed to disable your internet, knock on your door and say "I am from your ISP, here to fix your internet" unless they have a warrant.
That situation seems to me to be the most direct comparison of a sting ray. They are preventing your phone from interacting with the network and instead pretending to be that network.
That is radically different from passively listening.
They had access to personal, private information, they should have encrypted it.
Encrypting it does not fundamentally alter it, anymore than making taking a shirt and folding it so that it fits inside an evidence bag fundamentally alters it.
Should they be punished for doing so? Yes. But it should not invalidate their case. Fine them $100 per suspect, and let the evidence in to court.
If they can fire 94% of their workforce without impacting their production, that means their Union was being very evil and insisting paying people do not work. Not 20%, not 50%, not 80%, but 94%. The Union was despicable.
The new business owners are doing a good job if they can cut their workforce by 94% and still keep their production up.
People are entitled to good paying, safe jobs, not to "make work."
What, you mean with rebels trying to kill as many cops as possible in a mis-guided act of vengeance for racists cops killing black people?
Honey, it's already happened.
I always hated that that quote ignores the unknown knowns. (Things we know, but don't know we know) They are often the most important things - and things we don't write down until after someone asks us "how did you do that?"
For example if you order me to commit a crime, I quit on the spot.
Employers routinely fire people on the spot without notice, so employees can do the same.
Is it rude? Yes. Does it burn bridges? But sometimes you NEED to be rude and NEED to burn bridges.
The reason they are putting it on by default is that only 5-10% of their audience was requesting things be blocked.
Instead of admitting that their customers DID NOT WANT THIS CRAP, they decided to expand it by making it default
News flash, when only 5-10% of your target audience wants something, that means you should discontinue it, not force everyone else to use it - and worse, create a 'pervert' list of people that refused to accept your censorship.
So now they are pissing off over 80% of their customers because
If they make a mistake and refuse to show something, there are many other options to post your stuff.
If it is truly newsworthy, one of the others will publicize it, and Facebook will be the one that bears most of the consequences of their mistake.
Story is not interesting, or worth commenting on (except to say that it is not worth commenting on). Never should have been greenlit
They listed a ton of brands. I think it would be easier to do a list of hoverboards that are NOT proven fire hazards, rather than the other way around.
Also is there some reason those lithium batteries only went into hoverboards? Or did some go into other devices - and are those other devices safe?
After all, it's not the wheels or actual standing area that's the problem.
They need the organs in as good shape as possible. So when your heart stops beating, instead of simply saying "Time of death ...." and walking away, they hook you up to machines that keep your body alive and functioning, till they come in and cut everything out.
That seems to be an indictment of your hospital (or possibly your wife) rather than the entire system.
Among other things, hospitals put MORE effort to saving organ donors than they do for non-organ donors. They want the organs in as best condition as possible.
This kind of thought demonstrates ignorance. it's based on the false belief that somehow, the organ donors get WORSE treatment than dead people.
The truth is that if you can't respond but could recover, and are not a an organ donor, they simply pull the plug and let you die. Then they bury the organs you worked so hard to prevent
other people from getting.
It takes more than simply not responding to get you marked as dead.
The number of people that a) can't respond, yet b) can still live if they pull the plug are remarkably small.
If you are an organ donor, then they take extra steps to make sure you are really dead.
So being an organ donor makes it LESS likely that you will be killed (by turning off the machines), rather than more.
The Faraday cage is NOT 'easily enough done', nor will selling the parts be easy.
Without the faraday cage, you get arrested before you make it home.
A GPS plus cellphone tech installed in the bot mostly negates this threat.