Apple's iPhone 18 Modem Switch Comes With a Quiet Privacy Benefit

[CarAnalogy]

I'm getting the impression that somehow the phone itself is what determines the location based on info from the towers and then returns that location to the cell system. That allows the phone to potentially send less precise info when desired.
From a google search on this topic I got:

Trilateration (Distance): Your phone measures the precise amount of time it takes for a signal to travel back and forth between the phone and at least three different cell towers. By calculating the distance from each known tower, the phone's software pinpoints the exact spot where all the coverage zones intersect.

Sector Analysis (Direction): Each physical cell tower is usually equipped with three directional antennas (or sectors), each covering a 120 degree wedge. Your phone identifies which specific antenna sector it is communicating with, narrowing down the location to a pie-shaped wedge pointing away from the tower.

From what I've been looking in to for the last few minutes, there has been no published technical information. But yeah that's the same impression I got. Just giving more vague but technically still accurate information to the cell tower.

I still don't understand how this is supposed to benefit anyone. They even say it's still neighborhood level, that's plenty for marketing. And who are they supposed to be stopping from marketing, the network operators? That ship has sailed. I just don't get the point.

 

[JohnC1959]

From what I've been looking in to for the last few minutes, there has been no published technical information. But yeah that's the same impression I got. Just giving more vague but technically still accurate information to the cell tower.

I still don't understand how this is supposed to benefit anyone. They even say it's still neighborhood level, that's plenty for marketing. And who are they supposed to be stopping from marketing, the network operators? That ship has sailed. I just don't get the point.

I doubt marketing ever gets your location from the cell system. I think websites mainly know your general area based on databases of IP addresses and their locations. I think this low precision feature is more to protect you against that very rare unscrupulous cellular employee or maybe some government agency gone rogue. Very rare situations but good to know.

 

[Queues]

Yeah this seems like it will be about as effective as "Do Not Track." Yeah sure ooookkkkk...we'll just collect all the data we can get from what's required to establish a connection anyway and sell that to our analytics partners.

Which by the way the very act of trying to hide tracking is a big fingerprinting signal in itself.

Are you saying that my attempts to prevent my being tracked across the internet might be having the opposite effect? Is there somewhere I could learn more about this?

 

[eifelbube]

How long until the EU tries to ban this?

The EU won’t because Reducing location precision is in the interest of the consumer. (I am afraid the EU joke is getting a bit long in the tooth)

See also in the article:
In the United States, only Boost Mobile supports limiting precise location data, but EE, BT, and Sky all support it in the UK, while carriers in Austria, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Thailand have also adopted support and all of these carriers have the setting turned on by default.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I doubt marketing ever gets your location from the cell system. I think websites mainly know your general area based on databases of IP addresses and their locations. I think this low precision feature is more to protect you against that very rare unscrupulous cellular employee or maybe some government agency gone rogue. Very rare situations but good to know.

I'm talking about the cellular network operators themselves selling my location data to the highest bidder, which they do and I doubt this will stop them.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Are you saying that my attempts to prevent my being tracked across the internet might be having the opposite effect? Is there somewhere I could learn more about this?

This website seems to be a good resource on the subject:

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