>Also important to remember is that GPS is not the same as location services. Even if GPS and cellular data are unavailable, a mobile device calculates location using Wi-Fi and/or BT. Apps and websites can also use other sensor data (that does not require user permission) and web browser information to obtain or infer location information.
Wondering what kind of sensory data they meant here, I had a look at the citation[0]. If anyone else is curious:
>We describe PinMe, a novel user-location mechanism that exploits non-sensory/sensory data stored on the smartphone, e.g., the environment’s air pressure and device’s timezone, along with publicly-available auxiliary information, e.g., elevation maps, to estimate the user’s location when all location services, e.g., GPS, are turned off. Unlike previously- proposed attacks, PinMe neither requires any prior knowledge about the user nor a training dataset on specific routes. We demonstrate that PinMe can accurately estimate the user’s location during four activities (walking, traveling on a train, driving, and traveling on a plane).
[0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01468
Wondering what kind of sensory data they meant here, I had a look at the citation[0]. If anyone else is curious:
>We describe PinMe, a novel user-location mechanism that exploits non-sensory/sensory data stored on the smartphone, e.g., the environment’s air pressure and device’s timezone, along with publicly-available auxiliary information, e.g., elevation maps, to estimate the user’s location when all location services, e.g., GPS, are turned off. Unlike previously- proposed attacks, PinMe neither requires any prior knowledge about the user nor a training dataset on specific routes. We demonstrate that PinMe can accurately estimate the user’s location during four activities (walking, traveling on a train, driving, and traveling on a plane).
[0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01468