digital privacy
Location tracking
The continuous recording of where your phone — and therefore you — goes, via GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell towers.
Location tracking is the continuous recording of a phone's position through GPS, nearby Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth beacons, and cell towers. On a smartphone, dozens of apps may collect it, and location histories have repeatedly been found for sale through data brokers.
An honest distinction matters: any cellular phone is coarsely locatable by its carrier through tower connections — that is how calls find you. What a dumbphone eliminates is the commercial layer: no apps means no per-app GPS harvesting, no SDK trackers, and no location brokerage. Your movements stop being a product.
Related Terms
View all →Data broker
A company that buys, aggregates, and resells personal data — location trails, purchases, profiles — usually without your knowledge.
IMEI
The unique serial number identifying a phone to the network — used for allowlists, blocklists, and activation checks.
Metadata
Data about your communications — who, when, how long, from where — which reveals more than most people expect.