Your uncle was right, we all need tin foil hats and the government is watching you. This is a curated list of all the outlandishly clever ways you're being tracked.
- Printer Steganography - Laser printers hide tracking dots in every page which helps trace documents back to you.
- Screen Scraping - Nearly every TV manufacturer scrapes your screen, figures out what you're watching, and sells your viewing history.
- Crowdsourced WiFi Maps - Most popular electronics monitor WiFi access points in the background and build detailed maps, which can later be used to locate devices without using GPS.
- Phone Location - Telephone providers can easily track your phone using cell towers, but typically it's reserved for emergency services. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint were caught selling to private buyers.
- Government Surveillance - The NSA collected, mined, and archived all domestic phone and email traffic.
- Doorbell Video Feeds - Amazon's Ring doorbells have a police partner program, offering mass video surveillance without a warrant.
- Audio Beacons - Several apps include hidden software that listens for ultrasonic "beacons", inaudible sounds that play during TV Shows and advertisements. Your phone reports these beacons to create a personalized online marketing profile. Beacons can be added to anything, including radio stations or city streets. Thankfully the technology appears to have limited use globally, and it only works if you grant microphone permission.
- Zoom Beacons - Zoom (the video conferencing software) uses ultrasonic audio beacons to detect other devices in the call playing audio over their speakers.
- Key Forgery - A photo of your house key holds enough detail to 3D print a working copy.
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