Coronavirus authoritarianism thread

[Borderland]

Thank you for that. From a curmudgeon who still uses a candy bar style cell phone, with no real internet or texting capabilities and only upgraded to that one, when the 2G went away.
Just sorry to see no belt loop.

Now 3G is going away so you may need to upgrade again. The good news is they're making flip phones again. My wife keeps telling me to text her but homies phone don't text.

[Borderland]

Am I the only one who's considered an ammo can bolted to the floor in the truck as a cell phone carrier?

Doesn't all that ammo beat the hell out of your cell phone?

[OlongJohnson]

Also with sealed smart phones how do you even know the phone itself is “off?” Short of a faraday bag, you don’t.

And even when you have all the settings on "don't interact with my voice," it still seems to show ads or provide search suggestions about stuff you might have muttered under your breath.

Make that a sound-resistant ammo box...

[blues]

Now 3G is going away so you may need to upgrade again. The good news is they're making flip phones again. My wife keeps telling me to text her but homies phone don't text.

Shit, is that true? I'm still using a 3G iPhone 5c. Only "smart" phone I've ever owned.

[Borderland]

Shit, is that true? I'm still using a 3G iPhone 5c. Only "smart" phone I've ever owned.

I'm not sure about your carrier but my neighbor told me Verizon 3G was ending this year in our area. Might want to call your carrier. Everyone is tripping all over themselves to get to 5G.

[blues]

I'm not sure about your carrier but my neighbor told me Verizon 3G was ending this year in our area. Might want to call your carrier.

I just looked and it said Verizon would stop service at the end of this year. Drat!!! I'll have to get a new friggin' phone.

[Duelist]

Shit, is that true? I'm still using a 3G iPhone 5c. Only "smart" phone I've ever owned.

Mine’s an SE - same size as yours with 6 guts and camera. It’s a 4G, but I’m not upset at the idea of a newer phone, other than paying for it. I’ll have to get one with a bigger screen, and that will actually be a good thing. I think.

[Borderland]

I just looked and it said Verizon would stop service at the end of this year. Drat!!! I'll have to get a new friggin' phone.

Looks like you might have to buy one of those new thousand dollar I phones.

[blues]

Looks like you might have to buy one of those new thousand dollar I phones.

Yay...

(I got this one as a freebie from Verizon back in the old days.)

[0ddl0t]

I am sure it has been covered before, but how well can they track a cellphone if location data is turned off?

Depends on who "they" are. As linked earlier, the NSA and the like can track cell phones even if they're turned off.

Mobile advertisers, who are ostensibly the ones sharing the data with local government, may or may not track you when your turn off location data. They can, but generally the resolution is not as good unless you're also on a wifi network (e.g. they can probably see you're in one particular section of a neighborhood, but won't know your location to within a couple of feet like with GPS on). Even if you don't connect to the network, merely having wifi or bluetooth enabled allows stores to track your movement down various isles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/b...your-cell.html

When I turn off location data, open a private browser, and go to google news, google still knows what city I am in and I'll get website ads tailored to my region. If I turn on my browser's VPN I'll get news & ads tailored to the location of the VPN.

Coronavirus authoritarianism thread

I suppose it is all just a matter of degrees, but stay at home orders seem pretty authoritarian to me.