My wife and I have used cellphones only recently. We still have a
landline phone, which has been integrated into the National Broadband
Network, and now used VOIP. Every time we lose our internet connection
Which happens several times a day,) we don't have a phone. Many people
no longer have any number except a mobile number.

I bought 3 cellphones at different times, for my wife to use. She
hasn't used any of them (or her hearing aids). I decided that I needed
one for myself as during COVID every business had a QR code that we
needed to scan. In my Retirement Village, there were 3 different codes
in the administration area. Even the commuter buses had a code of that
kind.

My phone is a Samsung, using a Google account. May 21 was polling day
for our Federal Election. I drove there, and parked my car in a side
street. When I got back to my car, I discovered that making a U-turn
was impossible. The road took me all over Bendigo, eventually getting
home from the opposite point of the compass. Google knew all about it.
They have now written to tell me that on that day I used the car the most.

I take the view that this kind of tracking is unavoidable, my phone has
a "secure folder" for such.

Doug.

On 07.06.2022 at 21:55, Doug Laidlaw scribbled:

> My wife and I have used cellphones only recently. We still have a
> landline phone, which has been integrated into the National Broadband
> Network, and now used VOIP. Every time we lose our internet
> connection Which happens several times a day,) we don't have a phone.
> Many people no longer have any number except a mobile number.
>
> I bought 3 cellphones at different times, for my wife to use. She
> hasn't used any of them (or her hearing aids). I decided that I
> needed one for myself as during COVID every business had a QR code
> that we needed to scan. In my Retirement Village, there were 3
> different codes in the administration area. Even the commuter buses
> had a code of that kind.
>
> My phone is a Samsung, using a Google account. May 21 was polling
> day for our Federal Election. I drove there, and parked my car in a
> side street. When I got back to my car, I discovered that making a
> U-turn was impossible. The road took me all over Bendigo, eventually
> getting home from the opposite point of the compass. Google knew all
> about it. They have now written to tell me that on that day I used
> the car the most.
>
> I take the view that this kind of tracking is unavoidable, my phone
> has a "secure folder" for such.

If you switch off the location tracking and the WiFi of your phone when
out of the house, they cannot track you. But leave those things on and
they'll find you faster than you can say "Boo!"

--
With respect,
= Aragorn =

On 7/6/22 21:55, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

> They have now written to tell me that on that day I used the car the most.
>
> I take the view that this kind of tracking is unavoidable, my phone has
> a "secure folder" for such.
>
> Doug.

A little like Aragorn,Doug. My WIFI is off, mobile data is off, and
GPS is off. The can be triangulated with cell towers as a last resort;
I'm not making it easy for them :-)

regards

--
faeychild
Running plasmashell 5.20.4 on 5.15.43-desktop-1.mga8 kernel.
Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64 installed via Mageia-8-x86_64-DVD.iso