Data Tracking On Mobile Devices
A Few Ways Companies Track Us And Use Our Data
We’ve all had that moment, we’re out with friends or family members, having a random conversation, and then later on, while browsing through some social media platform, an advertisement relevant to that conversation pops up. We all get a little suspicious of these ads from time to time, and probably wonder how the apps know what we were just talking about.
It’s perfectly reasonable to make the quick assumption that there’s some app listening to us through our phone’s microphone, or that our connected devices (Alexa, Google home, etc.) might be to blame here. As much as this might make for a great dystopian film, there’s just no proven evidence of this as of yet (One article discusses it here). It would be an extremely processor intensive task for all this “spying” to be done all the time on a mass scale (think about the billions of devices, all having smart assistants, running all the time). A device’s battery life will diminish to a few hours. The technology just is not that efficient yet.
So, if our devices spying on us is not how we get these uncanny advertisements, then how does it happen? While our phone may not be listening in on our conversations, it is tracking our behavior when we use the device: the content we watch, how long we watch it, the model of the phone we’re watching on, where we’re watching from, etc. Big tech companies will use that behavior data to “serve us better,” and it’s through this data that we get these accurate advertisements. The collection of this data is done in various ways, whether it’s through your browser, location tracking, or the people you spend time with in close proximity.
Incognito vs Regular browsing
You know that little icon with a hat and glasses like a detective? It’s available in almost all modern browsers be it on mobile devices or laptops, but let’s take a deeper dive to see if it is as helpful as we think.
The incognito mode to some might be an invisibility cloak from all tracking, but the reality is it’s not as great as it’s portrayed. To put it simply, it will not store browsing history, cookies, site data, or information entered in forms (autofill). What that means is that if you’re on a shared computer, the other person will not see your browsing history unless they’re literally peeking over your shoulder. Besides that, another side effect of using incognito mode is that you might not see ads relevant to your browsing history in certain cases. For instance, if it’s an Apple device using the Safari browser in private mode, you will be preventing Google or Facebook from getting relevant information to market you. However, if you’re using Google Chrome in incognito mode, Google will still track your browsing patterns. Similarly, your ISP will still have access to your browsing data and your activity. Ultimately, incognito mode does give some privacy, but it does not completely hide you, if that’s what you’re after. There are tools, like VPNs, which might be better suited if you would like to bunker down your internet usage, keep up with what’s happening in the world, and still not share any data of your own without your will.
Location Tracking
When it comes to location, several improvements have been made on both fronts, Android as well as iOS, but still it’s a problem. For instance, vulnerabilities like visited places are still trackable and stored on both platforms. It might be that Android will have that data more easily accessible compared to iOS, but the fact that it is stored at all was a surprise to me. On iOS, “Significant Location” keeps track of your frequented locations, which was once even part of a conversation on the sitcom Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon forgets where he has been and was able to trace it back using this feature. It’s available even on the latest version of iOS (with authentication), but if you prefer not to be tracked this feature can be turned off. What you’ll lose is certain conveniences such as suggested locations for you to navigate to as your iPhone learns your daily patterns, or not having to manually update your home and work location (if they change) on Apple Maps. The above mentioned feature is in works at all times, and very accurate. I am not up to date with the Android counterpart in terms of security, but I do know that in older versions Android Google Maps stored similar data in an easily accessible location on the device. I even came across a story of how a tech engineer proved his wife at the time was cheating by using the same data to show her whereabouts. Point being that the location tracking on mobile devices, if we opt-in, is very advanced and accurate. There are other ways that companies use location to track your behavior too.
Every now and then, if we’re in some type of time crunch or going to be in a specific area for a prolonged amount of time, we might connect to public wifi access points. Now most of you might have heard that public wifi is bad because of how unsafe it is, but is your home network any better?
Recently I found out that all home routers, unless chosen to be opted out, will be utilized by Google to triangulate a rough location of the router and the devices connected to it based on IP addresses, instead of GPS or cellular services. How it works is that whenever a smartphone connects to a particular router, that smartphone has to be in the vicinity of that Wifi Access Point. Provided the smartphone has GPS and cellular service, a precise location of that smartphone can be traced, and assuming the device is connected to a Wifi Router, a rough location of that particular router can be known. This data can be used to increase the location tracking accuracy. Now, what does this mean to an average home with wifi users? Well, remember the GDPR? This stated that a user has to “opt-in” to allow their data to be used and only then it can be used. This location tagging through routers is doing the opposite of that. If you would like to learn more about it, or would like to disable it, Google documents how that can be done here.
Friends or Not Friends
With all the ecosystem of social networks (Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn) we all have encountered suggestions of people “who we might know” or ads that are targeted towards us but seem odd since we never looked it up on the web even once. So how does all that connect and assist in mobile marketing? The answer is proximity to a data set. Let me elaborate.
Whenever we’re at a friends place for a social gathering (might sound like a thing of past if you’re reading this during COVID) and we connect to the same wifi network, due to location tracking, the social media algorithm knows that the other people connected to the same network might be worth suggesting if not already a social media connection.
It doesn’t end there, let’s say you exchange numbers with someone. That itself is the single most important data point which can let you connect with another person, or at least be able to find them on social media platforms if they have their phone number linked. This is a powerful piece of information that we give out that sometimes can help get background about a person you’re about to meet (think online dating), but can also be used for other malicious purposes. I have linked to many articles, so let’s spice it up and here’s a podcast episode covering one of the ways phone numbers can be used to hack. Check out this episode of Snapchat thief.
Besides that, there’s always targeted marketing done based on who you’re with and their preferences. For instance, if your friend likes a specific car brand, it is a pretty high chance you’ll get that in your facebook feed as a recommendation if you interact with that person frequently.
In Conclusion….
It might seem scary to know all this information if it wasn’t known beforehand, but I think it’s more about being aware of the ways our behavior and interaction shapes the content we consume. There are always steps that can be taken to avoid unwanted tracking, up to and including how some people choose to boycott social media altogether, but it’s all a personal choice how you handle it. I wanted to bring up some points on how our data is used, but instead of making it a one-way form of communication, I would like to hear your thoughts in the comments below.