diff options
| author | GrapheneOS <contact@grapheneos.org> | 2024-07-09 22:05:28 -0400 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Daniel Micay <daniel.micay@grapheneos.org> | 2024-07-20 12:01:29 -0400 |
| commit | 189d39ea09d3a5bd30cfddc9dd0cbb4dbfe6bb5c (patch) | |
| tree | 5b449b99873b6751ce2ded4156b1ad0aa06e58a6 | |
| parent | 84ac3b4e11eba5958e8371b27fab135dfa1112fd (diff) | |
Positon location service
| -rwxr-xr-x | generate-sitemap | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | static/articles/positon-location-service.html | 89 |
2 files changed, 90 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/generate-sitemap b/generate-sitemap index 449f3c5f..d1b2fab2 100755 --- a/generate-sitemap +++ b/generate-sitemap @@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ pages = [ ["/articles/", 0.5], ["/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide", 0.5], ["/articles/grapheneos-servers", 0.1], + ["/articles/positon-location-service", 0.5], ["/articles/server-traffic-shaping", 0.5], ["/articles/sitewide-advertising-industry-opt-out", 0.5], ["/build", 0.5], diff --git a/static/articles/positon-location-service.html b/static/articles/positon-location-service.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bb190264 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/articles/positon-location-service.html @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en" prefix="og: https://ogp.me/ns#"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"/> + <title>Positon location service | Articles | GrapheneOS</title> + <meta name="description" content="Information about the Positon location service."/> + <meta name="theme-color" content="#212121"/> + <meta name="color-scheme" content="dark light"/> + <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#ffffff"/> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"/> + <meta name="twitter:site" content="@GrapheneOS"/> + <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@GrapheneOS"/> + <meta property="og:title" content="Positon location service"/> + <meta property="og:description" content="Information about the Positon location service."/> + <meta property="og:type" content="website"/> + <meta property="og:image" content="https://grapheneos.org/opengraph.png"/> + <meta property="og:image:width" content="512"/> + <meta property="og:image:height" content="512"/> + <meta property="og:image:alt" content="GrapheneOS logo"/> + <meta property="og:site_name" content="GrapheneOS"/> + <meta property="og:url" content="https://grapheneos.org/articles/positon-location-service"/> + <link rel="canonical" href="https://grapheneos.org/articles/positon-location-service"/> + <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico"/> + <link rel="icon" sizes="any" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon.svg"/> + <link rel="mask-icon" href="[[path|/mask-icon.svg]]" color="#1a1a1a"/> + <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png"/> + [[css|/main.css]] + <link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.webmanifest"/> + <link rel="license" href="/LICENSE.txt"/> + <link rel="me" href="https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS"/> + </head> + <body> + {% include "header.html" %} + <main id="positon-location-service"> + <h1><a href="#positon-location-service">Positon location service</a></h1> + + <p>The Positon location service is a proprietary and highly privacy invasive service + created by developers tied to /e/OS with their funding. There's a deliberate effort to + hide that it's tied to them in order to convince other projects to adopt it, as opposed + to using the similar service they host for /e/OS itself. Using the service requires + uploading sensitive location data to obtain location estimates, similar to the Apple and + Google location services. As with the Apple and Google services, it's a centralized + proprietary service with fully proprietary data. Unlike those services, the people + behind it have a history of publishing notoriously insecure software such as the /e/OS + operating system itself which massively rolls back standard security, lags years behind + on security updates and covers all of that up. They blatantly scam their users with + false privacy/security claims for /e/OS, and nothing different should be expected from a + location service from the same group of people. Multiple people involved in it are also + actively participating in harassment targeting privacy/security researchers and + engineers including but not limited to GrapheneOS team members.</p> + + <p>The people behind the Positon location service have repeatedly talked about the + importance they see in centralizing the whole open source community around using their + service while locking out alternatives to it through proprietary data. They have spread + fear, uncertainty and doubt about making services using open mapping data through + claiming that it's a privacy hazard for people to have access to maps of Wi-Fi networks + publicly broadcasting their SSID despite that data already being available through many + commercial providers including publicly queryable databases such as Wigle. Anyone can + drive around building these maps and many companies have already built them, with the + data available for sale, as Positon shows with them obtaining access to it. The real + privacy hazard is sending your location in real time to a service, particularly a poorly + secured one from people known to cover up and downplay vulnerabilities. Positon has been + built to grab as much market share as possible early on before actual open options can + emerge and gather the necessary data such as <a href="https://beacondb.net">beacondb</a>.</p> + + <p>The people involved in Positon have only ever cared about their careers, power and + influence. They've consistently been on a side against real privacy and security, but + rather focused on monetizing people's demand for it and grabbing as much market share as + they can as quickly as they can with endless false marketing and attacks on projects + like GrapheneOS. They see GrapheneOS as a huge threat to them due to us striving to + bring people real privacy and security at no cost, which is far easier to obtain and + use. This invalidates the business model of their companies like Murena. They + consistently use their non-profits mainly as a way to earn money and promote their + for-profit initiatives.</p> + + <p>The service claims to be free of charge, but a core goal is turning it into a way to + get data from users to build their own database that's largely not going to be available + for use by others. Using it is helping them build a future business at the expense of + user privacy, little different from the Apple and Google services. This is not what the + open source community needs from a location service. The claims of no strings attached + and the implication that it's open are nonsense. Storing as little data as possible + would mean using local database for the region, not a network-based service. They're + opposed to doing a local service well rather than it being their long term goal. They + explicitly aim to lock out other alternatives and deter local location detection via + Wi-Fi.</p> + </main> + {% include "footer.html" %} + </body> +</html> |