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posted by martyb on Monday February 11 2019, @09:53PM   Printer-friendly

Phys.org:

Sixty-seven percent of smartphone users rely on Google Maps to help them get to where they are going quickly and efficiently.
A major of[sic] feature of Google Maps is its ability to predict how long different navigation routes will take. That's possible because the mobile phone of each person using Google Maps sends data about its location and speed back to Google's servers, where it is analyzed to generate new data about traffic conditions.

Information like this is useful for navigation. But the exact same data that is used to predict traffic patterns can also be used to predict other kinds of information – information people might not be comfortable with revealing.

For example, data about a mobile phone's past location and movement patterns can be used to predict where a person lives, who their employer is, where they attend religious services and the age range of their children based on where they drop them off for school.

Perhaps we can carefully craft our data patterns to tell advertisers, "Take a hike!"


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday February 11 2019, @10:24PM (7 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 11 2019, @10:24PM (#799782) Journal

    A couple years ago, in the mountains, not in a busy city, on a fairly obscure road, Google was able to tell me about a delay ahead. Sure enough when we got there, a line of cars greeted us.

    We thought that was amazing how Google could know that in a place not that heavily trafficked normally.

    I realized it was the aggregate data of other people's smartphones. (And NOT necessarily using Google Maps either! All google really needs is your phone sending in your location data.) It hit me, all those android devices, even if not using Maps, is how Google realized there was a line of cars right there.

    I liked that.

    Maybe we could craft laws and societal norms so that individual data cannot be kept. This aggregate data was a good thing -- and it doesn't not even need to be kept for all that long to be useful. It's usefulness wears off and needs updates on something dynamic like Maps.

    There is a difference in know that there are 35 cars lined up, instead of, the following cars are lined up: JANE, JOE, FRED, BOB, etc etc

    People say (in the same breath): I hate how much google knows about me, . . . hey google, can you recommend a movie I might like?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday February 11 2019, @10:29PM (3 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Monday February 11 2019, @10:29PM (#799789) Homepage

    " hey google, can you recommend a movie I might like? "

    We have some nice Biden 2020 campaign material for you, or perhaps you would prefer a stale Marvel superhero movie featuring a Black male/White female couple?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @10:46PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @10:46PM (#799804)

      Black male/White female couple

      Your age is showing, you wrinkled prick.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @11:25PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @11:25PM (#799821)

        This may be a crack at last year's "Black Lives Matter The Movie" ; although I don't remember an albino panther in it. Maybe it was just a token.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:47PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:47PM (#800094) Journal

      The first few Marvel movies, about a decade ago, were fun. I enjoyed some X-men and Fantastic-4 But they quickly wear thin. I don't even give them a look these days.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @11:10PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @11:10PM (#799814)

    So they can't keep an individual's records - so no following you around after the fact.

    But how many makes an aggregate? Tow data points? So you and your wife's phones... 3? Add 1 kid. 50? A single school bus...

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:51PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:51PM (#800098) Journal

      Actually, it can, in some cases, be okay to keep individual data points if they are sufficiently anonymized. Here are 35 android device data location points indicating a line of stopped cars. Little more than 35 GPS coordinates.

      If only they could have, or by law have, an attitude of keeping the least amount of useful information for the shortest amount of time it is useful.

      Even if it may be possible to reconstruct a history of an anonymous data point, and try to infer other things about it, this would at least significantly raise the bar compared to it being a simple index lookup.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday February 12 2019, @01:04AM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @01:04AM (#799855)

    Maybe we could craft laws and societal norms so that individual data cannot be kept. This aggregate data was a good thing -- and it doesn't not even need to be kept for all that long to be useful. It's usefulness wears off and needs updates on something dynamic like Maps.

    Funny thing is, Google, Apple, and Facebook would be the best references for:

    • what data they currently collect and retain,
    • what they can collect (aggregate and individually) with current technology,
    • what they could collect if they added functionality, and
    • the individually identifiable data in all of those which they process and act on.

    So in a way, they may be the best ones to draft such laws and comment on data collection privacy implications for all of them, for themselves, for other players potentially entering the market, and if they were ambitious, for state and local governments. Just depends on who you trust to know enough about it and act truthfully.