Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
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Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#2Even metadata is too much information.
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#3Just like how it only takes a few GPS coordinates to figure out who you are with a high degree of accuracy. Anonymizing data doesn't mean much in the big data world.
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#4Somewhat relevant: My brother attended a conference where a speaker said that gait of human beings are so unique that an individual can be identified with 100% certainty using the accelerometer of the phone in their pocket.
EDIT: Found a paper on the subject from 2009: http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/mfn3/pub/mfn_gait_id.pdf
EDIT 2: Found another paper from 2012 claiming 99.4% accuracy: http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~juefeix/btas_2012_felix.pdf
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#5I'd absolutely agree. I'm sure I'm an outlier, but I'm definitely recognizable - my calls:
* my girlfriend, in my town (Olympia, WA) * the ambulance company I work for (also in Olympia) * my "daytime" employer, a software company in Scottsdale AZ
Even the convergence of 2 or 3 of these calls would likely identify most.
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#6Somewhat relevant: My brother attended a conference where a speaker said that gait of human beings are so unique that an individual can be identified with 100% certainty using the accelerometer of the phone in their pocket. EDIT: Found a paper on the subject from 2009: http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/mfn3/pub/mfn_gait_id.pdf EDIT 2: Found another paper from 2012 claiming 99.4% accuracy: http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~juefeix…
I worked in a lab at Univserity that had several projects using gait analysis. It is very identifying, but much harder to collect than this kind of data -- you need a physical device on the target.
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#7Somewhat relevant: My brother attended a conference where a speaker said that gait of human beings are so unique that an individual can be identified with 100% certainty using the accelerometer of the phone in their pocket. EDIT: Found a paper on the subject from 2009: http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/mfn3/pub/mfn_gait_id.pdf EDIT 2: Found another paper from 2012 claiming 99.4% accuracy: http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~juefeix…
I worked in a lab at Univserity that had several projects using gait analysis. It is very identifying, but much harder to collect than this kind of data -- you need a physical device on the target.
Still, it could be very useful for intelligence agencies. If they have identified that a phone is being used by a terrorist they can identify which terrorist is carrying it if they're able to get access to its accelerometer. Or they could gain access to millions of phones' accelerometers and identify which ones are being used by known terrorists. At the very least I expect to see it in some spy movies in the next few years.
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#8Somewhat relevant: My brother attended a conference where a speaker said that gait of human beings are so unique that an individual can be identified with 100% certainty using the accelerometer of the phone in their pocket. EDIT: Found a paper on the subject from 2009: http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/mfn3/pub/mfn_gait_id.pdf EDIT 2: Found another paper from 2012 claiming 99.4% accuracy: http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~juefeix…
I worked in a lab at Univserity that had several projects using gait analysis. It is very identifying, but much harder to collect than this kind of data -- you need a physical device on the target.
Don't most people carry a mobile with them?
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I worked in a lab at Univserity that had several projects using gait analysis. It is very identifying, but much harder to collect than this kind of data -- you need a physical device on the target.
Still, it could be very useful for intelligence agencies. If they have identified that a phone is being used by a terrorist they can identify which terrorist is carrying it if they're able to get access to its accelerometer. Or they could gain access to millions of phones' accelerometers and identify which ones are being used by known terrorists. At the very least I expect to see it in some spy movies in the next few…
Given the recent leaks, I think we should start using "terrorist" in quotes, at least when referring to NSA "terrorists".
Re: Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
#10Cesar was my advisor and I was his first student. I've never been happier to see someone make a splash.