this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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Aluminum foil works. At least, I can't receive calls or texts through it last I tried.
Get the heavy duty kind. It's not any more conductive, but is more durable against tearing.
Note that a gap in your phone's tracking data can look suspicious at times. Sometimes it's less suspicious to leave your phone at home.
I second this. I've seen videos of cell phone thieves getting caught and they all have rolls of aluminum foil on them. I trust they know how to effectively block wireless signals.
Getting caught? Can’t work that well then!
jk
Just want to note here that suspicion does not equal proof. Consider honestly what you are trying to accomplish, and what the risks are. There are absolutely scenarios in which even raising suspicion is unacceptable, and others where it isn't.
I'm not selling dope, I just don't need Google knowing everywhere I went on the way to the doctor's office, where I'll probably sit and look at cat videos in the waiting room. I have anxiety and I can't stand surveillance like this constantly.
Have you tried risk management instead? You can turn off your cellular network, wifi network, and Bluetooth. Hell, you can just toggle on air plane mode. This should theoretically turn off GPS too.
If this isn’t enough management then you’re suspecting that the OS is somehow keeping track of you or there’s some firmware that is bypassing OS controls to track you. Unless you are doing something highly illegal or you are someone highly important, I highly doubt this is the case.
I do not think I need to be important at all. I just want something to throw it in. I have also checked a degoogled ohone that I think might actually work in my country.
Last I checked airplane mode does not disable GPS as it is a passive service. The phone will track your movement and then send it all next time you connect.
You must know something I don’t.
AFAIK, GPS works by fetching signals from satellites.
If you disable your Bluetooth/wifi antenna, you won’t know your relative location to other devices. If you disable your cellular antenna, you won’t know your relative location to cell towers. I presume that you would need some of that data to know your position relative to satellites but maybe I’m missing something. Maybe it receives data from satellites directly? Seems unlikely
Yes, GPS works by measuring your distance from several GPS satellites (based on the timing of the signals they send). If a few distances are known, it narrows it down to a point (the satellite orbits are known so you know where they are at any time).
I've owned several stand-alone GPS receivers before phones started to include the feature.
You can download offline maps to phones so that you can navigate without any phone signal.
De Google your phone if your that paranoid. Switch to Apple if unable to degoogle phone.
Hahaha what? "Give THIS company all your information instead" is kinda...
It can't be degoogled without gettung stuck in a boot loop.
surely it would be more cost effective to buy a degoogled phone and sell your current one?
I am checking on that. It took a while for me to find an option. It expensive, but at least it is not Snoople or Samsux. I swear my firewall swats down google constantly. They hit me over and over and over again. And I wonder why my electricity bill is through the roof.
Then yeah, faraday bag will suit your use case :)
quick note: you're likely correct the conductivity may not be higher, but the conductance likely is.
in other words, i second your suggestion of heavier duty foil (for EM reasons, skin effect etc) alongside the mechanical factors you mentioned.