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> You can go get an off-contract sim card, use it on a clean Android

The moment you connect to your WiFi, Google gets the SSID and can relate other devices using it. Possibly (?) the SSID is also known to WhatsApp.

Does it really help much?

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You don't even have to have wifi enabled, even when Wi-Fi is OFF it will still scan for SSIDs to use for location by default.

You have to disable an obscure setting to get it to stop this behavior.

But even after the device has detected the (B)SSID, you have to enable either Wi-Fi or your mobile data connection for the device to communicate with Google's servers. Still, just as worrisome.

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