Hello everyone, I have a question : Does Android phone have hardware based trackers? Not with the telecom part (for sure it has some), but especially in the CPU… And are Chinese phones worst than USA branded? So is the fact of having a degoogled os resolved the problem? Thx 😃

  • Cambionn@feddit.nl
    142·
    8 months ago

    For one, USA isn’t actually much better than China when it comes to tracking and privacy. They just have better PR about it. But in reality they equally suck.

    That asside. There isn’t some secret tracking chip, but any kind of wireless network will be used to track you by different parties. Cellulair, Wi-Fi (including Wi-Fi signaling when it’s “off”), Bluetooth, etc. This is a fact regardless of OS or where the phone is made, as tracking often already starts to occur by catching the signals you send out.

    As such, just degoogling won’t resolve tracking issues in and off itself, it’s just one of many steps to get less tracking.

    Phones physically in China, regardless off where it’s made, tend to get tracking software installed. Just take a burner if you ever go there. But that’s not hardware. And most “USA” phones are also made in China anyways…

  • ser@lemm.ee
    51·
    8 months ago

    Check out Techlore. They had a video on this.

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Define “trackers”. They don’t put in a chip to track you, no, but if you connect to cell networks, that can be tracked.

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)
    1·
    8 months ago

    The modem in most modern phones is what connects it to the world. It’s generally powered on all the time, even when your phone is off, or without a SIM card.

    That’s the kind of tracking that’s not within your control. The rest is just adding metadata to that pathway.