How Your Phone Is Used to Track You, and What You Can Do About It
Smartphone location data, often used by marketers, has been useful for studying the spread of the coronavirus. But the information raises troubling privacy questions.
As researchers and journalists try to understand how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting people’s behavior, they have repeatedly relied on location information from smartphones. The data allows for an expansive look at the movements of millions of people, but it raises troublesome questions about privacy.
In several articles, The New York Times has used location data provided by a company called Cuebiq, which analyzes data for advertisers and marketers. This data comes from smartphone users who have agreed to share their locations with certain apps, such as ones that provide weather alerts or information on local gas stations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/technology/smartphone-location-tracking-opt-out.html
#phone #location #privacy #surveillance
Smartphone location data, often used by marketers, has been useful for studying the spread of the coronavirus. But the information raises troubling privacy questions.
As researchers and journalists try to understand how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting people’s behavior, they have repeatedly relied on location information from smartphones. The data allows for an expansive look at the movements of millions of people, but it raises troublesome questions about privacy.
In several articles, The New York Times has used location data provided by a company called Cuebiq, which analyzes data for advertisers and marketers. This data comes from smartphone users who have agreed to share their locations with certain apps, such as ones that provide weather alerts or information on local gas stations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/technology/smartphone-location-tracking-opt-out.html
#phone #location #privacy #surveillance
Private Intel Firm Buys Location Data to Track People to their 'Doorstep'
The data comes from hundreds of ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones around the world.
A threat intelligence firm called HYAS, a private company that tries to prevent or investigates hacks against its clients, is buying location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples' phones around the world, and using it to unmask hackers. The company is a business, not a law enforcement agency, and claims to be able to track people to their "doorstep."
The news highlights the complex supply chain and sale of location data, traveling from apps whose users are in some cases unaware that the software is selling their location, through to data brokers, and finally to end clients who use the data itself. The news also shows that while some location firms repeatedly reassure the public that their data is focused on the high level, aggregated, pseudonymous tracking of groups of people, some companies do buy and use location data from a largely unregulated market explicitly for the purpose of identifying specific individuals.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj454d/private-intelligence-location-data-xmode-hyas
#intelligence #firm #HYAS #data #location #privacy
The data comes from hundreds of ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones around the world.
A threat intelligence firm called HYAS, a private company that tries to prevent or investigates hacks against its clients, is buying location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples' phones around the world, and using it to unmask hackers. The company is a business, not a law enforcement agency, and claims to be able to track people to their "doorstep."
The news highlights the complex supply chain and sale of location data, traveling from apps whose users are in some cases unaware that the software is selling their location, through to data brokers, and finally to end clients who use the data itself. The news also shows that while some location firms repeatedly reassure the public that their data is focused on the high level, aggregated, pseudonymous tracking of groups of people, some companies do buy and use location data from a largely unregulated market explicitly for the purpose of identifying specific individuals.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj454d/private-intelligence-location-data-xmode-hyas
#intelligence #firm #HYAS #data #location #privacy
Vice
Private Intel Firm Buys Location Data to Track People to their 'Doorstep'
The data comes from hundreds of ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones around the world.