More or less useful tracking using cellular network base stations available since 3G. Really from CDMA, which is kind of 2.5G and uses same DSSS modulation as 3G, but it doesn't have such base stations density as 3G to make true triangulation possible and 2.5G phones have no ability to work with several base stations simultaneously.
Formally, even 2G have time shift parameter that allowed estimate phone position as a circle (or a circle segment) 500 meters wide at known distance around current base station.
Cellular tracking is less precise than GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou, and gives even worse results in rural areas where only one base station around, but more than enough for basic surveillance. If it gives that you somewhere in 1 square kilometer area that includes gas station in the middle of nowhere, with high probability you are exactly on that gas station.
This positioning is available for both, cellular operator and for smartphone OS.
If possible, switch to GSM only mode. It will be harder to locate you, and as a bonus you will get much longer battery life. Internet connection will be extremely slow, so, just disable it.
Not sure there are still many places where GSM still works in Western world. At least in 2019 I used GSM only mode in different Germany towns and rural areas without any problems, but couldn't find working GSM network in Paris and around.
I was a victim of something like this for a long time, but it was a lot more frequent than every 15 minutes. It would sap my phone batteries very quickly.
More or less useful tracking using cellular network base stations available since 3G. Really from CDMA, which is kind of 2.5G and uses same DSSS modulation as 3G, but it doesn't have such base stations density as 3G to make true triangulation possible and 2.5G phones have no ability to work with several base stations simultaneously.
Formally, even 2G have time shift parameter that allowed estimate phone position as a circle (or a circle segment) 500 meters wide at known distance around current base station.
Cellular tracking is less precise than GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou, and gives even worse results in rural areas where only one base station around, but more than enough for basic surveillance. If it gives that you somewhere in 1 square kilometer area that includes gas station in the middle of nowhere, with high probability you are exactly on that gas station.
This positioning is available for both, cellular operator and for smartphone OS.
If possible, switch to GSM only mode. It will be harder to locate you, and as a bonus you will get much longer battery life. Internet connection will be extremely slow, so, just disable it.
Not sure there are still many places where GSM still works in Western world. At least in 2019 I used GSM only mode in different Germany towns and rural areas without any problems, but couldn't find working GSM network in Paris and around.
It's been working long enough that it's how they picked up Kevin Mitnick in 1995.
I was very precisely geolocated on very old cell phone technology.
Don't follow junk advice from forums. There are teams paid to give bad security information online.
Pondering Google software while running it on a smartphone is like pondering the radioactivity of a banana while standing in a nuclear reactor.
"Smartphones" are literally the cabal's surveillance bugs.
What do you think of this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.faircode.netguard&hl=en_US
You can monitor/block traffic to google
I assume this applies to all Pixel phones. How about other Android phones? is this built-in Google Play?
I was a victim of something like this for a long time, but it was a lot more frequent than every 15 minutes. It would sap my phone batteries very quickly.