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Well, I must say I didn't expect big corporations would get their "privacy" violated by tacking apps. Do you think it's cheaper to just buy back the data or to

Well, I must say I didn't expect big corporations would get their "privacy" violated by tacking apps. Do you think it's cheaper to just buy back the data or to set up their own cell towers and block the app traffic?

C1sc0cat 8y ago
Or just buy a load of cheap burner phones and fake out the data - use some cheap drones to make them move around :-) A bit like some people hire actors to pretend you have more employees.
- nitrogen 8y ago
  A bit like some people hire actors to pretend you have more employees. Could you expand on this or link to an example? It seems like this wouldn't be cost effective (or useful).
  - jfim 8y ago
    This is done to simulate popular launches (eg. hire people to wait in line when your new store or restaurant opens, to give the impression that the new place is hot) or for faking headcount metrics for investors (eg. hire people for a day when the investors come, so they can gawk at the open office full of people). It's ethically dubious, but if it's done for a day or two, it's not that expensive compared to actually hiring that many people on a full time basis.
  - walshemj 8y ago
    You do it when trying to get investment have fake employees come in to make it look like you have more employees.
ozzyman700 8y ago
I don't think either of your proposed options are legal/possible. afaik this geo data isn't sold to a single party, and is collected through so many various channels purchasing them all would be quite expensive. As far as making your own cell tower, I would love to know if this is even something a non telco company can do. I doubt creating any blocks for specific content would be possible or legal as well. How would you block https traffic, and how would you determine who is an employee and who is not? This tracking is a result of allowing visitors to bring personal devices on prem. As long as they are personal devices administered by their owner I don't know what could be done to mitigate this. The problem still exists if all phones are put into a faraday cage when they arrive at the site. Instead of tracking users at the plant they just track users who 'go offline' at the drop off site. Getting employees to stop bringing personal devices is the only way to actually quell this fear. Even the US military has an issue with Strava run logs leaking data about the movement patterns in their bases.
DINKDINK 8y ago
>I didn't expect big corporations would get their "privacy" violated by tacking apps. Why? Corporate espionage (either collecting metadata for speculation or exfiltrating corporate secrets) has the highest incentives around it. Order of espionage I'd expect State>Corporation>Individual The only thing that's changed in the past 30 years is surveillance/espionage has gotten cheap enough that it can be performed on individuals

C1sc0cat 8y ago

Or just buy a load of cheap burner phones and fake out the data - use some cheap drones to make them move around :-) A bit like some people hire actors to pretend you have more employees.

nitrogen 8y ago
A bit like some people hire actors to pretend you have more employees. Could you expand on this or link to an example? It seems like this wouldn't be cost effective (or useful).
- jfim 8y ago
  This is done to simulate popular launches (eg. hire people to wait in line when your new store or restaurant opens, to give the impression that the new place is hot) or for faking headcount metrics for investors (eg. hire people for a day when the investors come, so they can gawk at the open office full of people). It's ethically dubious, but if it's done for a day or two, it's not that expensive compared to actually hiring that many people on a full time basis.
- walshemj 8y ago
  You do it when trying to get investment have fake employees come in to make it look like you have more employees.

ozzyman700 8y ago

I don't think either of your proposed options are legal/possible. afaik this geo data isn't sold to a single party, and is collected through so many various channels purchasing them all would be quite expensive. As far as making your own cell tower, I would love to know if this is even something a non telco company can do. I doubt creating any blocks for specific content would be possible or legal as well. How would you block https traffic, and how would you determine who is an employee and who is not? This tracking is a result of allowing visitors to bring personal devices on prem. As long as they are personal devices administered by their owner I don't know what could be done to mitigate this. The problem still exists if all phones are put into a faraday cage when they arrive at the site. Instead of tracking users at the plant they just track users who 'go offline' at the drop off site. Getting employees to stop bringing personal devices is the only way to actually quell this fear. Even the US military has an issue with Strava run logs leaking data about the movement patterns in their bases.

DINKDINK 8y ago

>I didn't expect big corporations would get their "privacy" violated by tacking apps. Why? Corporate espionage (either collecting metadata for speculation or exfiltrating corporate secrets) has the highest incentives around it. Order of espionage I'd expect State>Corporation>Individual The only thing that's changed in the past 30 years is surveillance/espionage has gotten cheap enough that it can be performed on individuals