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| Science & Technology |
| Location Data Companies |
| 2019-12-20 |
| [NYT] EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies ‐ largely unregulated, little scrutinized ‐ are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The Times Privacy Project obtained one such file, by far the largest and most sensitive ever to be reviewed by journalists. It holds more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans as they moved through several major cities, including Washington, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Each piece of information in this file represents the precise location of a single smartphone over a period of several months in 2016 and 2017. The data was provided to Times Opinion by sources who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to share it and could face severe penalties for doing so. The sources of the information said they had grown alarmed about how it might be abused and urgently wanted to inform the public and lawmakers. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #13 This may or may not be common knowledge. But to turn off tracking on your iPhone: Settings/Privacy/Location Services :: Off .../.../Location Services/Location Alerts/Show Maps in Location Alerts :: Off .../.../Location Services/Share My Location/Find My Phone :: Off .../.../Location Services/Share My Location/Share My Location :: Off Settings/Privacy/Motion and Fitness/Fitness Tracking :: Off Settings/Privacy/Analytics/Share iPhone Analytics :: Off Settings/Privacy/Analytics/Share iCloud Analytics :: Off Settings/Privacy/Advertising/Limit Ad Tracking :: Off |
| Posted by: mossomo 2019-12-20 21:45 |
| #12 The states (and FED DOT) use your phone's Bluetooth to monitor traffic flow(s) and destination arrival times you see up on the lighted traffic displays. Always wondered what else they look for. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2019-12-20 13:44 |
| #11 ^ This is routinely done. Why do you think Google etc spend billions to acquire shitty little traffic-monitoring companies? A: Location-based behaviors, joined with recency & frequency time series data, are far more valuable than search or web-surfing or app usage data alone. Join the two types of data and you have a gold mine of consumer intent. If you can reliably determine where, when and for what duration a person spent his time-- AND how frequently & recently he went to and stayed at those locations -- you can create a profile of that person's behavior and intentions that is will enable valid conclusions about past events and good predictions about future behaviors. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-12-20 10:43 |
| #10 Let see the big brother analyze all these data and pull useful conclusions. I once took a data analysis class where one of the clever things we did was to take smartphone data - location, accelerometers, etc - and use it to tell if the owner was walking, laying down, going up stairs and such. Useful? Maybe Interesting? Certainly |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-12-20 10:34 |
| #9 Look up MM's comment here. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-20 03:55 |
| #8 ..useful? They'll pull the predetermined conclusions they want. They're just looking for some rationale to justify it. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-12-20 03:50 |
| #7 Let see the big brother analyze all these data and pull useful conclusions. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-20 03:32 |
| #6 Just think, Big Brother never had to force you to be tagged, you voluntarily and cheerfully do it yourself all in the name of convenience. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-12-20 03:27 |
| #5 And we can all crush this by giving friends cheap mobile phones and having a handoff system. It could be great fun and a big laugh when gurgle, crapple and fartbook petition the gummint to make it a crime. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-12-20 02:30 |
| #4 If you tell Facebook "I'm at Bella Mia pizza joint," then Facebook knows where you are. If Google asks, "Allow access to your location," Mister Google knows where you are. They gotta know where you are to tell you how to get to Bella Mia. This is not Rocket Surgery. |
| Posted by: Fred 2019-12-20 02:17 |
| #3 I get around. No sense denying it. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-12-20 02:04 |
| #2 A slightly modified version of a 2015 scene to match 2019. |
| Posted by: Goober Tingle7365 2019-12-20 00:24 |
| #1 Windows 10 is also a tracking system. |
| Posted by: Goober Tingle7365 2019-12-20 00:14 |