Ask HN: How does the iOS Lyft app detect that I landed at the airport?

[stpn]

I have location services turned off while I’m not using the app and background app refresh turned off in iOS, but somehow Lyft still knows I’m at the airport and serves me a push notification ad.

I want to turn this off but I can’t think of how this is happening in the first place.

[galaxy_gas]

Can register geofenced notifications via https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/... in advance , The app is not informed (if don't tapping it) and it is triggered by the OS.

[bhaney]

I think it's less likely to be technical chicanery (special bluetooth beacons, wifi SSID scanning, etc) and more likely that your airline just partners with Lyft and directly hands them passenger information.

[AStonesThrow → bhaney]

No, I call bullshit.

A commercial airlines passenger manifest is very private information. It is security sensitive. They're not going to give or sell or publish that information, except to an entity that would be law enforcement or National Security oriented. Or if y’all die in a crash, they’ll use the manifest with the NTSB and FAA...

Perhaps Lyft figured out this person's IP address? Perhaps somebody sitting next to them detected that their phone and Bluetooth signature? There are many many ways to find out where you are at, without location services. Your accelerometers just gave away your excessive velocity!

[bdangubic → AStonesThrow]

one of the most naive answers I’ve read in awhile… of fucking course airlines sell this information. of all of this shit that is no longer private your LOCATION is number 1 thing anyone can buy with a few bucks mate

[AStonesThrow → bdangubic]

[citation needed]

No dude, the central question in this thread is “When?”

Realtime, accurate, up-to-the-minute manifest information is sensitive. Manifest information from last week, perhaps less so—especially considering other ways to infer movement of people.

But being able to know, “bdangubic just presented a boarding pass at El-Al Gate 8A in Kiev” or the details of USPS cargo stowed in the downbelow; or “AStonesThrow just 3 seconds ago landed with 74 other souls at KSFO and there are 11 Lyft Drivers nearby” that’s the crux of sensitivity. Like where to aim the MANPADS.

furthermore, passenger manifest data is not one blob of perfectly accurate information, like the digits of pi. it's ever-changing, and so the accuracy matters when considering the value, and the resale value, of such data. and the costs of litigation. imagine that a preliminary manifest is you know two weeks prior to the flights departure. and it gets leaked. it's preliminary, and it indicates who's booked the flight, but you have no idea who's actually going to board the flight or who did if this is looking in retrospective.

or I mean you can conceive of situations where a manifest would change while in flight. for instance somebody checks in and boards the flight, but they get sucked out of a door. or they die on route. and so the body shows up but the passengers soul is no longer present. Conversely, a hypothetical,pregnant mother boards a flight in shanghai, she gives birth to triplets, and these additional “formerly uterine passengers” land in San Francisco. how's that manifest look?

and so that's going to affect the accuracy, and therefore the value, of your manifest when considering sales to third parties, or litigation situations. or you know regilatory Federal Agency fines and stuff court fees.

Private jets and General Aviation have other rules. I don’t know what happens when Dad takes 8 children on a Piper Cub from Podunk Field Runway 18, but perhaps that’s going to be sold 30 days after they land safely?

At that point in time, it hardly matters who reads a list, compared to the realtime shit you assert without citing any reliable sources.

[daemonologist]

Change in IP location? If you suddenly jump across the country but your traffic is still coming from a cell provider (so unlikely to be a VPN) Lyft could infer that you've flown, and to which airport.

Alternatively maybe barometer? All modern iPhones have one, but I don't know if apps are allowed to access it in the background (or without location services), and it wouldn't let Lyft tell which airport you were at.

[NoPicklez]

People have asked this question before and there are a multitude of different potential ways. Supposedly Lyft can sync or calendar and in some cases was being sync'd automatically, perhaps it knew from that?

The app might pull accelerometer data in a way that suggests you just landed or were on a plane? Could it be that the cell towers in that area are known to be based at the airport?

[jordann]

Your calendar can get automatically updated from your emails; I imagine Lyft can likely access your calendar.

[orliesaurus → 0m3g4_k1ng]

nice reply