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The problem is how broad the term location services can be. In this context Facebook is using innocuous camera and sensor data to track the same device around. They could well write some code to listen to the microphone only when nobody around is talking, which per se wouldn't raise any privacy concerns, then use it to track laptops and tablets/phones by matching the sound of their fan under load or the spectral content of finger taps on the screen.

Unfortunately I believe there's not much users can do other than stopping using Facebook and any of their and similar products for good, then keep being alert because tracking people is both a business for companies and a tool for governments to suppress dissent, so anyone involved in any technology related to communications will inevitably be incentivized to implement anti-privacy features.



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