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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: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:31AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:31AM (#799889) Journal

    Such predictions have some reliability. Google can predict, based on past data, that on Wednesday, you will probably stop at the store for milk. And, they will probably be right most of the time. Depending on how much data they have on you, they may be far less reliable at predicting what bar you're going to get smashed at this weekend. Unless, of course, you plan the weekend with a friend or six, via Gmail. As mentioned by others, people are creatures of habit. Actions taken on a regular basis makes you very predictable - like, you drink an 8 ounce glass of milk every morning. And, Google can probably predict pretty accurately that you'll spend Friday and Saturday night at a bar, but since you don't always go to the same bar, they can't predict which bar you'll be at.

    The Navy has a history of "predicting" things. I've mentioned that I was in supply department. When a ship gets underway, it is expected to carry everything it needs for an extended deployment of 120 days. That includes groceries, of course.

    Now, how can you predict that you will need X tons of ground beef, when people don't always eat the same? Simple - you average things. And, the Navy has a couple centuries of experience to draw on. (The army has similar experience, but their needs are somewhat different from the Navy.) So, it doesn't matter that Tom is sick on Monday, and doesn't eat well, or Bill is trying to lose weight. Both are just insignificant blips in the averages. What they don't eat, someone else will. More, you can expect that both will make up for it next Tuesday, when they are assigned to a working party carrying ammunition during an Unrep.

    Harri Seldon, in Asimov's Foundation had it right. As individuals, people are only somewhat predictable. En masse, people are very predictable. Additionally, if people KNOW that you're predicting their actions, many of them will poison your data, and ruin your predictions. I am one of those many. I enjoy poisoning data bases.

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