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!"
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday February 12 2019, @01:04AM
Funny thing is, Google, Apple, and Facebook would be the best references for:
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.