The intelligence agency warns of location tracking risks and offers tips for how to reduce the amount of data shared
The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) has published guidance on how to reduce the variety of risks that stem from having your location tracked when using smartphones, IoT devices, social media and mobile apps. Despite being geared towards military and intelligence personnel, the advice can be useful for anybody who’s looking to limit their location exposure.
“Location data can be extremely valuable and must be protected. It can reveal details about the number of users in a location, user and supply movements, daily routines (user and organizational), and can expose otherwise unknown associations between users and locations,” according to the intelligence agency.
The guidance notes that a powered-on smartphone exposes your location – regardless of whether or not you’re actively using the device. “Mobile devices inherently trust cellular networks and providers, and the cellular provider receives real-time location information for a mobile device every time it connects to the network. This means a provider can track users across a wide area,” said the agency.
On a related note, a smartphone can reveal its location even if both the Global Positioning System (GPS) and cellular service are offline or disabled – relying on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections to do the ‘job’. This could provide ample opportunity for adversaries to track their targets using wireless sniffers, even if their potential victims aren’t using any of the wireless connections actively, said the NSA.
The intelligence agency also stressed the need to distinguish between location services, which are services provided by devices to apps, and GPS. “Perhaps the most important ..
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