How is this happening? Paranoid about tracking?

[stevensfo]

I'm in Malta for a very short visit, using a tablet I've had for about 2 years and Melita WiFi. A link takes me to Google Play Store. One of the first thing I see is a nice list of Apps I've installed before.

But these were very old Apps, Chess, Sudoku etc that I installed on an old phone many years ago that has been in a drawer for at least 2 years.

I wasn't logged into Google/Gmail and Location Information wasn't on.

The other weird thing is that I always keep Location Info switched off on my phone as well, but a few times I've received Malta weather reports from Google. Okay, this is maybe because my android phone knows it's in Malta from the WiFi IP address and somehow sending this info to Google, but the list of old apps has me looking around for hat shaped aluminium foil.

Steve

[swill453]

In Google Play Store you can find your "Library", which is all the apps you've installed using that Google account on any device, but which aren't currently installed on the device you're using.

Scott.

[UncleEbenezer]

Amazon do the same with Kindle. Saves you having to pay a second time for something you already own from them when you've lost it, or just want it on your new device.

But I don't know why it should have identified you as a play store user when you weren't logged in. Unless it was in your tablet's cache from a time when you were logged in.

As for your phone knowing it's in Malta, that'll be because it picks up a Maltese partner of your telecoms provider. Doesn't it send you a text message on arrival, telling you what is/isn't included in your tariff while your there, and any costs for calls, texts and data?

[Slarti]

I'd suggest that the answer is cookies.

Slarti

[Infrasonic]

More generally it's almost impossible to completely hide yourself unless you go off grid and have no electronic gadgets.

Look at the efforts Netflix et al have put into successfully breaking VPN's to maintain their region blocking, and what the Chinese Govt. have done with their great firewall.

TOR has holes too and has had some high profile exploits exposed previously.

Shadowsocks was viable for a while, not sure what the state of play is currently (one of the main Chinese developers went into hiding for a bit...).
https://shadowsocks.org/en/index.html

It's a constant state of cat and mouse, and in the case of state actors they have big budgets to throw at it.

[Infrasonic]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201 ... sage-data/

Google will soon let users automatically delete location history and other private data in rolling intervals of either three months or 18 months.

Cont.

[stevensfo]

As for your phone knowing it's in Malta, that'll be because it picks up a Maltese partner of your telecoms provider. Doesn't it send you a text message on arrival, telling you what is/isn't included in your tariff while your there, and any costs for calls, texts and data?

Yes, I got the standard message from Vodafone.

But the weather report was from Google. Location/GPS switched off.

Steve

[stevensfo]

More generally it's almost impossible to completely hide yourself unless you go off grid and have no electronic gadgets.

Look at the efforts Netflix et al have put into successfully breaking VPN's to maintain their region blocking, and what the Chinese Govt. have done with their great firewall.

TOR has holes too and has had some high profile exploits exposed previously.

Shadowsocks was viable for a while, not sure what the state of play is currently (one of the main Chinese developers went into hiding for a bit...).
https://shadowsocks.org/en/index.html

It's a constant state of cat and mouse, and in the case of state actors they have big budgets to throw at it.

Well, we could just buy a few cheap smartphones and sim cards and keep each for different destinations.

Re. Netflix, I had no idea they bothered about region blocking. I thought it was only the BBC that did that. Our youngest son at uni has Netflix and we've used his account down in Italy and Malta with no trouble, and certainly no VPN. Okay he admits that the choice of programmes isn't the same, but as long as I can find my SciFi and choose language, I'm happy.

But this business with cookies, Facebook/Google/Hotmail/Amazon ads, location tracking etc is starting to p*ss me off.

Steve

[Lanark]

Is the tablet running Android?

If so android is owned by Google and so... well what would you expect.

[BobbyD]

The other weird thing is that I always keep Location Info switched off on my phone as well, but a few times I've received Malta weather reports from Google. Okay, this is maybe because my android phone knows it's in Malta from the WiFi IP address and somehow sending this info to Google, but the list of old apps has me looking around for hat shaped aluminium foil.

You've got GPS switched off, your phone still knows where you are because it knows which cellular network you are connected to and it can see all the wifi networks around you, so it carries on serving you location tailored info as before.

Re. Netflix, I had no idea they bothered about region blocking. I thought it was only the BBC that did that. Our youngest son at uni has Netflix and we've used his account down in Italy and Malta with no trouble, and certainly no VPN. Okay he admits that the choice of programmes isn't the same, but as long as I can find my SciFi and choose language, I'm happy.

Anybody who uses other people's film/tv needs a region block as the licensing is done by geographical region. What is available on Netflix actually varies by country, which is why people use VPN's to access American Netflix in Europe.

[xeny]

The other weird thing is that I always keep Location Info switched off on my phone as well, but a few times I've received Malta weather reports from Google. Okay, this is maybe because my android phone knows it's in Malta from the WiFi IP address and somehow sending this info to Google, but the list of old apps has me looking around for hat shaped aluminium foil.

Steve

Google has to know the device's IP address to send weather information to it. IP-> rough location is pretty much a solved problem.