Sharing GPS Location Leaves You More Exposed than You Think

Taking into account the current times, it is reasonable to ask: what would we do if the GPS did not exist in our mobile or any device? Well, very probably life will take its course. However, we have become so used to its high level of usefulness that many have become dependent on this great tool for everyday use. Keep in mind that this positioning system is found in practically all kinds of devices. However, is it worth exposing our privacy in that way?

Now what exactly is GPS? Or rather, what do their initials mean? They correspond to the Global Positioning System . This positioning system originates from the United States and over the years has not stopped favoring it. Making a bit of history, until the 1980s, this system had a limited scope. It was available for exclusively military use. The situation changed when Ronald Reagan, president of that country at that time, decided to release it for use globally.

share gps location

Operating scheme

The GPS works by satellites that transmit radio signals that have data from their respective locations. In addition to that, they report their current status and precise time. This, thanks to atomic clocks on board. All the radio signals transmitted by the satellite travel through space at practically the speed of light, that is, at almost 300,000 kilometers per second.

Moving to Earth, a GPS device receives radio signals from the satellite, and begins to “take note” of the exact time when those signals arrived at that device. That information is the basis for calculating the distance you are in relation to the satellite that is in your line of sight. Finally, once the GPS device determines its distance in relation to at least four satellites, it uses geometry to determine its location on Earth in three dimensions.

However, how is this being exploited by my mobile? This device uses the data generated by GPS to perform the triangulation and determine your current location, in addition to the time. Previously, we commented that at least four satellites are needed to determine the GPS location. Precisely, the fourth satellite is used to determine the altitude, so that you can obtain your geolocation data on a map, specifying only the other three.

It is known that one of the great consumers of mobile battery is location services, that is, GPS. One of the main reasons is the use of AGPS (or Assisted Global Positioning System) , which feeds on traditional GPS data in addition to the data provided by the mobile service provider you use.

In this way, the provider that you use to have mobile data, among other things, has information regarding your geolocation since your mobile constantly contacts the cells that provide the signal. This means that obtaining the location gains a little more precision and occurs practically in real time. Which is not the case with the GPS itself, whose location information takes almost a minute to update. This combined AGPS system is much faster than just using GPS, since it triangulates us depending on the mobile phone antenna to which we are connected.

GPS is quite useful, what’s the worst that can happen?

We do not believe that you only have a single application that uses the data obtained through your location information using GPS or AGPS. But rather, with several, such as Google Maps , Facebook , Instagram , Tik Tok and many other apps that require location services. Especially, large corporations find it very valuable to be able to access information regarding where you are currently, what are the places you frequently visit, what time do you leave your home, what time do you leave work or university and plus. All of this contributes to making our user experience a thousand times more personalized than normal, and in fact, we enjoy it. We cannot deny it!

What we have to keep in mind is that we are increasingly exposed and that is an alarming risk. Not just online but in real life. If we do not have complete control of our devices, which in some way or another require GPS or AGPS to function, your security and privacy are at risk. That some cybercriminal manages to follow your steps and become the victim of an assault is just one of the risks. Millions of cybercriminals can access your entire life on a daily basis just by having location services enabled in practically any application.

Our main advice is simple: if an app doesn’t need location services , just don’t give that permission. Or if you have already given it before and want to control this aspect of one or more applications, you can go to the mobile settings and go to the application manager to manage these permissions. If you access this menu, you will be quite surprised in relation to the dozens of applications that constantly feed on your location.