alt Hacker NewsHow is this news?
Why wouldn't carriers be able to ask your phone about what it thinks its location is?
Replies
The can ask but your phone maybe doesn’t have to tell them by default / you can opt out
Why would they? It's basic privacy no? Just because I want to pay money to carrier to provide me with data and phone service, I shouldn't have to give up my location from my device. I expect them to know my approximate location from cell tower data.
Generally I'd not expect them actively triangulate my exact location, but I'd realise that's at least possible - but GPS data, wake my phone up, switch on the GPS radio, drain it's battery, send that data back... no. That wouldn't be legal where I live either, let alone expected.
There's a difference in precision between cell tower triangulation and GPS. From 10-100 meters down to 1.
The cell network does not need to know where you are down to the meter and phones have no business giving this information up.
No, please read the article. No one is saying carriers cant triangulate but carriers shouldn't be able to query the gps on my device and get precise GNSS data.
> Apple made a good step in iOS 26.3 to limit at least one vector of mass surveillance, enabled by having full control of the modem silicon and firmware. They must now allow users to disable GNSS location responses to mobile carriers, and notify the user when such attempts are made to their device.