I won’t belabor the point too much here for the 10000th time. But search through my history if you want to read about my speculation on this going back 2 years.
Our phones are able to make navigation and food suggestions because of something called “Frequent Location” (can’t remember what Google’s Android calls it). Most people don’t know it exists and are shocked to see their entire lives and movement documented there with pin point GPS accuracy down to feet with time and date attached. MOO
Apple has done some work to obfuscate the granular data because of stalking concerns. But the underlying data is still there for those with the right access to a phone. MOO
I speculated that BK was unaware of its existence. I also believe that he was probably unaware that airplane mode doesn’t necessarily turn off GPS nor does turning off your phone. You have to explicitly turn it off. Providers and manufacturers keep it on because GPS doesn’t rely on cellular infrastructure. It’s the reason your 30 year old Garmin navigation device (with no cellular or WiFi) will work to this day assuming your maps are still relevant. MOO.
And yes, the on phone GPS data is completely separate from the tower and triangulation data. MOO
All MOO, I am not an expert nor do I claim to be.
Side note: I ended up belaboring the point