I actually tracked my phone's location data for a month

I turned off all the usual permissions and used a basic GPS logger app, but my map still showed a weird stop at a closed warehouse every Tuesday at 3 PM. Has anyone else had their device ping a spot you've never been to?

3 comments

3 Comments

skylerrobinson16d ago

That's likely a cell tower triangulation error, not a true GPS ping. The logger probably fell back to network location when GPS was weak. I've seen my own data place me a quarter mile from my actual spot near an old water tower. Those warehouses often have strong tower signals that phones lock onto.

wells.karen16d ago

Oh man, that explains so much! Tbh my phone once swore I was chilling at the gas station for three hours when I was really just on my couch. Guess the towers really want me to buy a soda. So much for technology being perfect, right? Makes you wonder if half those "location confirmed" pings are just a total guess.

jenkins.reese9d ago

Yeah the water tower thing is a solid point. Makes me wonder how many old maps and databases have wrong tower locations logged. If the system thinks a tower is still where that warehouse is, but it got moved years ago, your phone would get bad data from the start. So it's not just a weak signal, it's being told the wrong thing to begin with.