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Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

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Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#11

Post by KMnO4 »

aritmo wrote: post #8

Most likely the users installed one of those free apps that ask for location access. Those apps collected the location, even when not ruining and uploaded for sale. It is a pity they did not do better forensics on the installed apps. One or more were revealing the location.

It would be really interesting if each app was fed a slightly modified location as steganography. Then the sold data could be cross-referenced to determine which companies are selling the data.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#12

Post by whoopdedo »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #6

What I don’t get about this kind of thing is that it’s not just shady data resellers you’ve never heard of. It’s also overt, high profile, branded tech companies like Foursquare and Yelp, with huge amassed data sets of foot traffic, wifi scans, battery status, often paired with demographic info or data that can be joined by ad IDs or commercial device graphs. If these companies are able to keep on truckin’ with massi…

When someone uses an app such as Yelp it's like valet parking. They know they're handing over something vital, but its with the expectation that the company will provide something of value in exchange, and trusting that they won't use it for more than that. Yes, you're allowing a company to track your movement (for the purpose of grading restaurants). And yes, you're allowing someone else to drive your car (for the purpose of finding a parking space). If you find out a third-party is tracking your location though, that would be as if someone other than the valet were driving your car. And when they use it for their own gain in a way that doesn't return anything of value to you, that would be considered joyriding.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#14

Post by mortenjorck »

aritmo wrote: post #8

Most likely the users installed one of those free apps that ask for location access. Those apps collected the location, even when not ruining and uploaded for sale. It is a pity they did not do better forensics on the installed apps. One or more were revealing the location.

I don’t know if AccuWeather is available in Norway, but in the US at least, it (in conjunction with location data company Reveal Mobile) has been one of the leading location-data trojan horses: https://www.zdnet.com/article/accuweather-caught-sending-geo...

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#15

Post by VRay »

KMnO4 wrote: post #11
aritmo wrote: post #8

Most likely the users installed one of those free apps that ask for location access. Those apps collected the location, even when not ruining and uploaded for sale. It is a pity they did not do better forensics on the installed apps. One or more were revealing the location.

It would be really interesting if each app was fed a slightly modified location as steganography. Then the sold data could be cross-referenced to determine which companies are selling the data.

Sounds like a waste of time to me. If you feed 5 different location streams, you'll just find those same 5 streams for sale.. What a f---ing nightmare we're living in

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#16

Post by PeterisP »

ggggtez wrote: post #5
soared wrote: post #2

Isn’t data this granular illegal, at least in the US? Obviously trying to make the data anonymous does nothing if you can still see the same user over time - I’ve only ever seen this data with users put into groups, and data points fuzzed.

>is granular location data illegal Generally speaking, there are no laws against merely possessing data, unless the data itself was the result of a crime. Maybe you mean selling the data? That's nuanced. It seems to be illegal for phone-companies to sell your real-time cellphone location... but historical data? App developers instead of phone companies? The devil is probably in the details in terms of what constitute…

The article is about Norway, and there are laws against merely possessing data, namely the GDPR. To be specific, "merely possessing" private data (the granular movement data would qualify) by companies for business purposes is illegal by default - there are many options that give a legal basis for processing, and many of them do not require the user's consent, but it's upon the company to demonstrate what gives them the permission to do that, and having no justification (if the company "just has it") means that the processing is illegal. And even if the company has a legitimate reason for processing as such, doing so "without your knowledge" is generally illegal, as even where consent is not required, they are required to inform the data subject about the purposes of processing their private data.

It's not about selling data - purchasing the data or having it or using it also are covered.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#17

Post by indymike »

Many of the apps that sell your location use location as a critical component of the experience. Apple and Google added a permission last year - only allow access to location when app is running (in the foreground). That change has made a dramatic reduction in the amount of location data available.

Ultimately, free is the culprit. People like to navigate, buy stuff online, see things on a map, get local weather, and so on - especially if it is free. The old adage about if it is free, you are the product probably applies.

Re: Your mobile data sold, without your knowledge

#18

Post by indymike »

KMnO4 wrote: post #11
aritmo wrote: post #8

Most likely the users installed one of those free apps that ask for location access. Those apps collected the location, even when not ruining and uploaded for sale. It is a pity they did not do better forensics on the installed apps. One or more were revealing the location.

It would be really interesting if each app was fed a slightly modified location as steganography. Then the sold data could be cross-referenced to determine which companies are selling the data.

More than likely, we'd have five companies selling the same original data.
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