this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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As someone on graphene OS without google play services, this sounds amazing
I guess. But it is really going to depend on where you live and just how frequently it does dial home.
My personal use for these networks is luggage tags. But a friend lost her phone on a hike a few years back and the find my phone stuff was more or less useless due to poor reception and ever dwindling battery.
The real benefit is the low energy bluetooth magic and OTHER devices to do the phoning home. Because maybe I have shit reception but someone hiking a hundred feet away has good reception and updates the ping.
I dont want to be part of that spy network.
"Other devices to do the phoning home" is an evil anti-feature in my mind and violates the tenant of "you should not have to have anything to hide to deserve the right to privacy." Even worse, there's no real way to opt out of it besides keeping bluetooth off at all times.
I mean... bluetooth is literally broadcasting your position (sort of/it depends on the implementation). It is not at all a stretch that you should turn that off if you care about privacy. Same with not scanning for what wifi networks are available or even pinging GPS satellites (because that leaves a log). Hell... cell tower logs are a treat for cops/TLAs for a reason.
Aside from that? Good for you. If you actually follow through on that I can respect it. My point is more that this particular solution seems like the worst of all worlds.
Either you are demolishing your battery with regular phone homes to a server you hopefully control or you are relying on a push via SMS and the hope that you lose your phone somewhere you havea reception. And you still only have YOUR phone and YOUR network to track it which has significant drawbacks if you travel.
Chiming in to note that GNSS communications are actually receive only. A typical phone can't physically broadcast a strong enough signal into mid-earth orbit (where most of those satellites typically are) to achieve the "pinging GPS satellites" issue.
Note this only refers to how that signal physically hits your phone. Once your position is deduced and digitized there's an entirely different attack surface.
The other concerns (especially cell tower data tracking) are valid though.
Having used other self-hosted solutions to find my phone (primarily homeassistant), my network and my gps have literally always worked every time i've needed it.
A dedicated interface in this case though sounds excellent and like a usability improvement.
What logs does it leave and where? Satellite is a one way communication system, the devices just receive the satellites signal and calculate the position by themselves.