I also read this in the article:

I would encourage everyone to read this article carefully.

I'm astounded any informed user is unaware of issues like this. Uninformed users are likely to gloss over it unfortunately.

I am somewhat curious about how this can be controlled by such things as installing Linux as a parallel to Android. Aren't firewalls possible to examine and limit uploads? ... or is this locked in proprietary firmware?

This is class action lawsuit waiting to happen. Just need to break the camel's back

I've just read the article - it's desperately needed information, but it's not really news.

Edit: added "I've"

I disagree. There might be some people aware this is happening, but there are certainly a large portion of the population who are oblivious. This is newsworthy.

I'm not.

There are various levels of being "informed." Persons may be "informed" (for example, when they get a message from Google asking how they liked their visit to "Joe's Diner"), but say to themselves, well, I trust Google and it's okay (they shouldn't and it isn't)--and not realize that Google is using that information to profile them, then using the profile to further undermine their privacy.

Then there are the "I got nothing to hide so it's okay" folks (I know one) who naively think that they have or always will have nothing to hide. They have no concept that "private" does not mean nefarious--it means only nobody else's business.

I agree that a great many people are wilfully oblivious, but they're unlikely to believe the article.

This misuse of bluetooth is just another step along the road built when unauthorised (by the device owner) collecting or sharing of information wasn't made a gaolable (or jailable, if you prefer) offence. As news, it's old.

this.

One can always hope...

I agree too. Nice phrase btw, "wilfully oblivious".

I have an Android 'phone that's fairly open about its ability to magically detect nearby BT and Wifi devices when the respective functions are "turned off," so the idea of Google (or Samsung) using them for tracking is no surprise to me.

The article solved a mystery for me though. My 'phone has an optional "high accuracy" location setting that claims to use BT and Wifi to improve on the various GNSS signals it uses. It makes no obvious difference to any of the mapping apps I use, but the stock camera app won't add location information to pictures without it. Now I can see both how it's supposed to work (in the locations where I'm least likely to use it ) and why Someone™ is so keen for me to use it.

The position of the "balance" is interesting. It seems that anyone sufficiently interested can find out what tracking is being done, and can even turn it off because Google et al put little switches in obscure locations with misleading labels so they can claim consent. The situation could be far better, but could also be far worse.

The later versions of Android (and of course lineage) give you more control over what functionality apps have authority to use. I give everything the "ok" on install, then go back and turn it all off. Some things get snaky (google itself and gopro e.g.) but I allow them when I want to use them, then disable it again. Fsck 'em.

Use a dumbphone, going on four years here.

Trying to decide if I want to do this, and wondering how much I'd miss the smartphone.

I, too, have been using a dumb phone for around 4 years now but since it is "a burner" the provider is forcing an upgrade claiming my current phone will soon be unusable with the "upgraded" network. This is why I'm asking if an Android phone which has a parallel installation of a complete Linux OpSys might be useful in controlling Android, or at the very least what can get in and what goes out since i will have root. Even if such spyware possibilities are in firmware there is at least the possibility of bit-flipping to alter even that. Maybe I am hoping for too much but I have substantially replaced and altered a considerable number of firmware devices in the past IF they were designed to accept any updating at all, and a handful that were not. The latter, of course, required physical chip replacement but that may well be nearly impossible within the wave-soldered extreme miniaturization in smartphones.