Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is surveying the commercial advertising technology market for tools capable of supplying location data and large-scale analytics to federal investigators, according to a recent Request for Information (RFI).
Framed as market research rather than a procurement, the RFI seeks information from companies offering “Ad Tech compliant and location data services” that could support criminal, civil, and administrative investigations across ICE’s mission set.
Even if you are not connected to a WiFi network (so the toggle is off) background WiFi scans can still be used to track you by triangulating your position from nearby networks. This service is provided by Google for your convenience of course, so you don’t even need to wait for GPS to pick up and they can track you without draining your battery too much.
When I used to run a degoogled phone I was able to swap that service with an equivalent one provided by Mozilla, but they stopped supporting it after a while.
We need someone like the EU to forbid bank apps to require Google’s integrity checks so we can make modded Android great again.
Yes, it’s better to use a phone OS and/or phone hardware that does not do that, or can be relied on that off means off. And yes, even then it’s still possible that firmware blobs do nefarious things.
WRT Mozilla location services: I’m not 100% informed, but there’s yet another alternative. Community-driven iirc.
My bank does not require Google integrity checks. Change your bank?
And yes, cell tower triangulation is always a thing even on dumb phones.