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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, L

by 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.

by gpvos 11y ago

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.