It’s been some years that I am not able to log in to my Google account, because I stopped using it for a very long time any Google product, and now even providing my password, they say they can not know if it is me or now…
They send me to this support page which seems like I have lost my account with all the data and stuff I had from when I was younger…
I don’t think this is normal or ethic to do (I know Google has been never ethic), but this makes me so angry because I never wanted to lose all that data…
Do they basically know every people networks? And if you don’t let them know… you lose access to Google? … 😠
Well, in a way, they do provide accurate geolocalisation for indoor environments based on wifi networks. And it is right that having internet/bluethooth access also (more or less) reveals your location; but that doesn’t make it ethical.
Technically using multiple network devices increases accuracy of geolocation info fetching, but the side effect is clearly intentionally and unethically misused by Google and US govt criminal agencies. If this were some sort of global community entity with an open, transparent database (like OSM) fetching this data (think instead of Google’s we had an open community UnifiedNLP component for OS), it would be relatively somewhat okay, but its clear what is happening, and these things should be kept talked about IRL without fear or care.
You are thinking of https://opencellid.org and of Mozilla location services. You can contribute to them with the TowerCollector app.
UnifiedNLP is just one interface that can use many “backends” or “location services”, like the Mozilla one, an offline list, or even google itself via microG.
Its just the most relatable idea I commented, because dedicated privacy readers and Android modders usually have come across picking Mozilla’s backend over Google on their rooted phones. microg is used often as well.