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Is GPS private?
(lemmy.ml)
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
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Yes, it is private by technology:
GPS and other systems working the same way are passive, similar to receiving a radio signal. You're receiving the signal of several satellites at the same time and your device calculates your position based on those signals. You're basically getting "I'm satellite cool boy and at the next beep it's exactly five past nine" all the time - only with a bit more precision. Your device does rhen the actusl position calculation locally.
Fun fact! Geo positioning is one off the few things where we need to apply both general and special relativity for real world effects: the effects due to the satellites speed and high distance to earth (and therefore the reduced effect of gravity) cause a significant shift in the speed in which clocks run on those satellites compare to Earth. As we use the exact time to calculate distance and with that position this would cause a huge drift otherwise!
Ok that is really cool!