Post #498326
2026-03-03 03:46 UTC
GPS is not bidirectional communication, so the systems themselves (ie GNSS) aren’t tracking you just because you receive the signal. But…
In addition to GPS, airplane mode also doesn’t shut off the Wifi or bluetooth radios; it’s usually just the cell radio.
Your phone OS has several ways of tracking and recording your location, activities, and movements, and it generally does this at all times. For example, Find My even works when the battery on an iPhone is “dead.”
Phones may fallback to BTLE mesh networks (like AirTags), or do background WIFI location scanning to track and record your phone’s location. Turning these off does prevent you and 3rd party apps from using the features, just not the OS.
Replies (2)
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@pineapple@lemmy.ml 2026-03-03 04:29
I do prefere airplane mode allowing wifi for obvious reasons. I have a samsung and it really does suck how far baked in the spyware is. Is it possible/are there any guides that show me how to make samsung or any other phone not be able to use its spyware? Is the only way to fix this using a custom rom or postmarketos?
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@chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-03-03 06:35
What about GPS devices that are not phones