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Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

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Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#71
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any reason to think google doesn't sell your data

google monetizes your data (targeting), but doesn't sell it to others.

#1 Reason: no one can monetize that data better than Google

#2 They'd be helping their rivals with such data

#3 Sharing might kill the golden goose (bad press etc)

...

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#72
post #56

I think we need to reassess how we treat data generated by users via phones, devices and our digital activities. We had the concept of private and public property long before intellectual property became codified by law. I believe that we are entering a new phase which may require the development of a new type of jurisprudence around things like location data. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I'm starting to believe…

No need to invent new jurisprudence - if the location data can be used to identify an individual, it is personal data under the GDPR and enjoys all the rights and protections enabled by the regulation.

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#73

Perhaps this is a good reason to use Google Voice and not give anyone the underlying real phone number with cell service.

Yep, I've been doing this for years. Only my wife and a few trusted friends have the real cell phone. Everyone else and their mother gets the GVoice number. I also change the underlying number occasionally just to mix it up even more (although truth be told that's to get better wireless deals, but it has a nice bonus of added security).

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#74
post #72
post #56

I think we need to reassess how we treat data generated by users via phones, devices and our digital activities. We had the concept of private and public property long before intellectual property became codified by law. I believe that we are entering a new phase which may require the development of a new type of jurisprudence around things like location data. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I'm starting to believe…

No need to invent new jurisprudence - if the location data can be used to identify an individual, it is personal data under the GDPR and enjoys all the rights and protections enabled by the regulation.

some of us are in the USA, (including article's author). The privacy realities we face are drastically different than in the EU.

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#75
post #72
post #56

I think we need to reassess how we treat data generated by users via phones, devices and our digital activities. We had the concept of private and public property long before intellectual property became codified by law. I believe that we are entering a new phase which may require the development of a new type of jurisprudence around things like location data. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I'm starting to believe…

No need to invent new jurisprudence - if the location data can be used to identify an individual, it is personal data under the GDPR and enjoys all the rights and protections enabled by the regulation.

That's fine for you Europeans under GDPR. (Sure, there's careouts for weird exceptions.)

That doesn't do diddly for us US citizens living in the US. Our data policy is "we will sell your data, too bad so sad".

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#76
post #56

I think we need to reassess how we treat data generated by users via phones, devices and our digital activities. We had the concept of private and public property long before intellectual property became codified by law. I believe that we are entering a new phase which may require the development of a new type of jurisprudence around things like location data. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I'm starting to believe…

> More specifically, the screenshot showed a location in a particular neighborhood—just a couple of blocks from where the target was.

What gets me is that the writing on wall appears to be that this data did not come from an app on the phone but from the phone company themselves, data collection that is required by the government.

"A couple of blocks from where the target was" implies to me that it was locating the nearest tower. Lat/Long coordinates of the phone within 300 meters is required by the FCC to be received by the telephone companies for Phase II of Enhanced 911. They might be snapping the lat/long to the tower, and then calling that de-identified enough to sell.

If a bounty hunter can get your snapped lat/long on demand because of E911 requirements, you better believe a TLA can as well--and probably unsnapped.

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve set up a DID that leads directly to a voicemail box that emails me the recording. It’s worth the $1/month expense to have a number to hand out to people I don’t want to be available to. And, in a way, it keeps me available when I’m overseas and don’t have my usual SIM card installed. I use VoIP.ms

Can you discuss how you set this up? I looked at voip.ms and it looks like it supports Asterisk and other VOIP software, how did you configure yours? Thanks

I'm not the above poster, but I also use voip.ms. I don't think you'd need any software at all to set up a phone number with voicemail that mails the recordings. If you want to place calls from your provisioned phone number, you'd of course need either a VoIP phone, VoIP software on your computer or mobile, or rely on DISA (dialing in to voip.ms's system then entering a number to dial).

I use a SIP desk phone, have calls forwarded to my mobile, and also get voicemail recordings in mail.

(Going back to the original article -- I can't say if this actually protects you from such tracking. Maybe stalkers could find your actual mobile number by some other means, or for all I know customer-identifying parameters could be used without even knowing the phone number.)

Re: Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

#80
Amazing chain of data transfer there. Likely with each one obeying their individual terms but the terms being lessened at each step of the line.

AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile --> Zumigo --> Microbilt --> Bail bond company --> Bounty Hunter --> Motherboard

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