Pocket watch. Isn’t that the intended purpose of the small pocket?

If you use an online service to upload which towers you see, and get an approximate location as a response, then yes, it could be just ad bad from a privacy perspective. What these open databases allow is the possibility to download the whole tower database to your device, and then do the lookups locally.

That’s what they are! I have a box full of leftover parts from years of home repairs, and I frequently store caps of opposite genders screwed together like this.