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Hyde Park visitors tracked via mobile phone data

60 points by Turukawa 11y ago

gpvos 11y ago
The data seems to be well anonymized and aggregated and with a 4-week delay, so I don't think I would object to this. A related article linked at the bottom, London garden bridge users to have mobile phone signals tracked ( http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge-mobile-phone-signals-tracking-london http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge... ), signals something more troubling, as people there will be tracked individually and real-time.
- gpvos 11y ago
  On second thought: this is the first time I've read about a cellular provider using triangulation to find out the precise location of a user. It is not something I expect to be necessary for their own business purposes; for that, it should suffice to know which cell tower a user is connected to, and the data does not need to be stored as it is ephemeral. I would worry about this precise location data (edit: or even the imprecise data) to be marketed or used for anything except maybe law enforcement, and I also wonder why it is stored at all. If it is stored because of data retention regulations, and the provider wants to market this data, even if anonymized, I would see that as a problem, because other parts of society would start to expect, and depend on, such data to be available, perpetuating this data retention.
  - gruez 11y ago
    > I would worry about this precise location data to be marketed or used for anything except maybe law enforcement, and I also wonder why it is stored at all. If it is stored because of data retention regulations, and the provider wants to market this data, even if anonymized, I would see that as a problem, because other parts of society would start to expect, and depend on, such data to be available, perpetuating this data retention. Already happening in the US. As said in another comment, airsage is one such company.
pasbesoin 11y ago
I suppose it says something that, based on the title, I assumed this was going to be about surveillance in the Obamas' home neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Government. Commercial. Here. There. It's ubiquitous.
nether 11y ago
What a boring dystopia.
sitkack 11y ago
Airsage does this for the entire USA for all time.
hellbanner 11y ago
So the homeless without cell phones don't fit into this? Interesting.
- gpvos 11y ago
  Many, if not most homeless do have cellphones.
HappyTypist 11y ago
I am OK with this if I ge tto opt out.

60 points by Turukawa 11y ago

gpvos 11y ago

The data seems to be well anonymized and aggregated and with a 4-week delay, so I don't think I would object to this. A related article linked at the bottom, London garden bridge users to have mobile phone signals tracked ( http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge-mobile-phone-signals-tracking-london http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge... ), signals something more troubling, as people there will be tracked individually and real-time.

gpvos 11y ago
On second thought: this is the first time I've read about a cellular provider using triangulation to find out the precise location of a user. It is not something I expect to be necessary for their own business purposes; for that, it should suffice to know which cell tower a user is connected to, and the data does not need to be stored as it is ephemeral. I would worry about this precise location data (edit: or even the imprecise data) to be marketed or used for anything except maybe law enforcement, and I also wonder why it is stored at all. If it is stored because of data retention regulations, and the provider wants to market this data, even if anonymized, I would see that as a problem, because other parts of society would start to expect, and depend on, such data to be available, perpetuating this data retention.
- gruez 11y ago
  > I would worry about this precise location data to be marketed or used for anything except maybe law enforcement, and I also wonder why it is stored at all. If it is stored because of data retention regulations, and the provider wants to market this data, even if anonymized, I would see that as a problem, because other parts of society would start to expect, and depend on, such data to be available, perpetuating this data retention. Already happening in the US. As said in another comment, airsage is one such company.

pasbesoin 11y ago

I suppose it says something that, based on the title, I assumed this was going to be about surveillance in the Obamas' home neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Government. Commercial. Here. There. It's ubiquitous.

nether 11y ago

What a boring dystopia.

sitkack 11y ago

Airsage does this for the entire USA for all time.

hellbanner 11y ago

So the homeless without cell phones don't fit into this? Interesting.

gpvos 11y ago
Many, if not most homeless do have cellphones.

HappyTypist 11y ago

I am OK with this if I ge tto opt out.