High-Tech Eyes in the Sky Are Following You – Even in Your Car

Are you being followed? In one sense, we’re all being followed.

Every mobile phone has a GPS uplink for services including Google Maps, Waze, and other location finder apps as well as simple apps that find restaurants or gas stations in your vicinity. Then there’s the more intense and dangerous type of following where an individual is actually tailing you and noting your route and destination. This can be police or military surveillance, a prelude to a kidnapping or robbery, or even your murder.

How do you know if you’re being followed? And what can you do about it if you are?

Electronic surveillance is relatively new. Your smartphone is highly convenient, and if you’re like most people, you’re tethered to it at all times. You continually check email, texts, websites, payment apps, maps, directions and much more. Your phone is sending and receiving digital signals either from a cell tower or a wi-fi router.

That’s the point. If you can receive digital signals from the internet, others can receive digital signals from your phone. Those signals can be used to track your whereabouts.

One solution is to delete or disable apps that do track you. These include GasBuddy, MyRadar, Life360, and many others. You have to check the fine print in the terms of use (which practically no one does) to see if there’s vague language about “third party data and reports” or like terms. That means the app provider can share your data.

One major user of your location data is Arity founded by Allstate Insurance. Arity uses your driving data including how fast you drive, how often you accelerate, and how many times you hit the brakes. That data is shared with insurance companies who use it to set your auto insurance rates.

Another data aggregator called Connected Analytic Services affiliated with Toyota keeps a second-by-second record of every time you exceed 85 mph. If the insurance companies are tracking your every move while driving, it’s easy for the government to do the same.

The best way to defeat this technology is to delete those apps and disable any permissions required to track your data. My personal approach is to use a Faraday Bag. This is a special pouch (they come in many sizes and styles) with a selected metal lining that blocks radiation to or from your mobile phone.

If you turn your phone off and then place it in a Faraday Bag, that should block any ability to pick up signals from the phone. Of course, you won’t receive texts or emails either, but you can download those later. You shouldn’t text and drive anyway.

Your car itself is a problem. New cars have built-in transmitters and receivers that can be intercepted by third parties. Everyone enjoys their SiriusXM radio and podcasts in the car, but those signals are another way to track your whereabouts.

Toyota, Lexus and General Motors appear to be the worst offenders. You might want to keep away from those models. Also, newer cars have more of these devices so you might want to stick with a pre-2020 model.

Finally, you can go to the digital dashboard system on your car and look for options that let you disable signal monitoring. This war between digital surveillance and individual privacy promises to continue indefinitely.

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