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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 11 2018, @01:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-not-what-I-did dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They're Not Keeping It Secret

At least 75 companies receive anonymous, precise location data from apps whose users enable location services to get local news and weather or other information, The Times found. Several of those businesses claim to track up to 200 million mobile devices in the United States — about half those in use last year. The database reviewed by The Times — a sample of information gathered in 2017 and held by one company — reveals people’s travels in startling detail, accurate to within a few yards and in some cases updated more than 14,000 times a day.

These companies sell, use or analyze the data to cater to advertisers, retail outlets and even hedge funds seeking insights into consumer behavior. It’s a hot market, with sales of location-targeted advertising reaching an estimated $21 billion this year. IBM has gotten into the industry, with its purchase of the Weather Channel’s apps. The social network Foursquare remade itself as a location marketing company. Prominent investors in location start-ups include Goldman Sachs and Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder.

Businesses say their interest is in the patterns, not the identities, that the data reveals about consumers. They note that the information apps collect is tied not to someone’s name or phone number but to a unique ID. But those with access to the raw data — including employees or clients — could still identify a person without consent. They could follow someone they knew, by pinpointing a phone that regularly spent time at that person’s home address. Or, working in reverse, they could attach a name to an anonymous dot, by seeing where the device spent nights and using public records to figure out who lived there.

Many location companies say that when phone users enable location services, their data is fair game. But, The Times found, the explanations people see when prompted to give permission are often incomplete or misleading. An app may tell users that granting access to their location will help them get traffic information, but not mention that the data will be shared and sold. That disclosure is often buried in a vague privacy policy.

“Location information can reveal some of the most intimate details of a person’s life — whether you’ve visited a psychiatrist, whether you went to an A.A. meeting, who you might date,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who has proposed bills to limit the collection and sale of such data, which are largely unregulated in the United States.

“It’s not right to have consumers kept in the dark about how their data is sold and shared and then leave them unable to do anything about it,” he added.


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  • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:54PM (3 children)

    by NewNic (6420) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:54PM (#773002) Journal

    That's why I turn off my phone when I visit my local legal pot store. I also use the car that doesn't have location tracking.

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    lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
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  • (Score: 2) by TheFool on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:02PM (2 children)

    by TheFool (7105) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:02PM (#773044)

    And you pop the battery out to make sure it's off, right?

    Because if you can't do that, you're really best just leaving it home.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:07PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:07PM (#773048) Journal

      Battery??! What about the SECOND battery??!!!

      Joking aside, you could put it in "airplane mode", turn it off, and then wrap the phone in a sleeve aluminum foil, which should kill the signal(s).

      X years from now, maybe we will have neutrino routers in every computing device phoning home using a backup battery.

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:23PM

      by NewNic (6420) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:23PM (#773054) Journal

      I'm not worried about the NSA tracking me, so no: I don't remove the battery.

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory