Location Data Guide
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HOW THE POLICE CAN DETERMINE YOUR LOCATION, AND HOW YOU CAN BETTER CONTROL ACCESS TO YOUR LOCATION DATA Where is my phone’s location data stored? How can my location data be accessed? Your phone can be located in two main ways, using GPS or mobile There are a number of methods the police can use to can gain access to your network location: (phone) location: 1. GPS 2. Mobile network location 1. GPS 2. Mobile network location • GPS (that stands for Global • Mobile network location (or Global • Accessing GPS location data • Your approximate location data can Positioning System) uses satellite System for Mobile Communications depends on where the data is be accessed by the police through navigation to locate your phone (GSM) localisation) relies on your stored. It can be done using a your service provider. fairly precisely (within a few metres), cellular network, and can be ‘mobile phone extraction’ device, and relies on a GPS chip inside your determined as soon as you are which plugs into your phone and • This means that the police don’t handset. connected to the network (i.e. your downloads all the data stored on need access to your phone handset phone is switched on and not in it, including details of locations you to determine that you were within a • Depending on the phone you use, airplane mode) but is far less precise have visited. certain proximity of a protest. your GPS location data might be than GPS. Your approximate location stored locally and/or on a cloud can be determined with an accuracy • Access to your GPS data may • Another means of accessing this service like Google Cloud or iCloud. It range of a few dozen metres in a city, also be possible through device same information is to use an ‘IMSI might also be collected by any app or hundreds of metres in rural areas. hacking, an advanced technique catcher’ (also known as a ‘Stingray’), that you use that has access to your which might not necessarily require a device deployed to intercept and GPS location. • This location data is stored by your physical access to your phone and track all mobile phones switched on network provider. could be done remotely. and connected to a mobile network in a specific area. • If your GPS data is also stored on an online account (e.g. iCloud Other methods can also be used to determine your location indirectly, such or Google Maps), it can be as open wifi access points and Bluetooth beacons your phones connects accessed through cloud extraction to or location metadata embedded in your photos. technologies or legal requests to the companies that store that data. FREE TO PROTEST: THE PROTESTOR’S GUIDE TO POLICE SURVEILLANCE AND HOW TO AVOID IT (UK Edition) (Last updated June 2021) PRIVACYINTERNATIONAL.ORG How to better control your location data 1. GPS • Removing permissions to access your • If you’ve taken pictures with your 2. Mobile network location location for all apps can prevent location services switched on, the • The best way to prevent your this data being stored on an online location where the picture was taken • When it comes to mobile network location being accessed is to limit the account. might be included in the metadata location, the only way to have control generation of the location data in the (known as EXIF data) of the image. You over it is to prevent connection to the first place. • If you absolutely need an app to have might want to disable location services network at all. access to your GPS data, inspect the while taking pictures, or you can use • In the case of GPS, it can be as simple settings of that app to ensure that you software or an app to erase this EXIF • Having your phone switched o!, in as switching o! your GPS (often referred understand if your location is being data afterwards (for example, the airplane mode, or in a faraday cage to as ‘location services’). But bear in stored online or just locally on your app. Signal messaging app erases EXIF data will prevent connection to your mobile mind that the location data of any For example, if you use Google Maps when you send images). network, and therefore make GSM previous occasions where you did have while logged into a Google account, geolocation impossible. A faraday cage it switched on might still be accessible. you might want to disable location • Similarly, turning o! your wifi or or switching o! your phone prevents history in the settings so that your Bluetooth can prevent your phone any and all types of connection to any • If you still need to use GPS on your location history won’t be stored in your from connecting to unwanted access phone network. Whereas just using phone, check individual apps’ Google account. points and providing indirect location airplane mode means that some types permissions to access your location to information. of connections can still be made (e.g. minimise the spread of this information. Bluetooth or GPS). FREE TO PROTEST: THE PROTESTOR’S GUIDE TO POLICE SURVEILLANCE AND HOW TO AVOID IT (UK Edition) (Last updated June 2021) PRIVACYINTERNATIONAL.ORG.