The Conversation Your mobile phone can give away your location, even if you tell it not to Most people expect that turning their phone’s location services off disables this sort of mobile surveillance. But the research conducted by Northeastern University researchers Guevara Noubir, Sashank Narain, Triet Vo-Huu, Ken Block and Amirali Sanatinia, in a field called “side-channel attacks,” uncovers ways that apps can avoid or escape those restrictions.