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I've directly sampled a lot of mobile location data. The data is sparse. Most people do not have their location data distributed, and of those who do most have

I've directly sampled a lot of mobile location data. The data is sparse. Most people do not have their location data distributed, and of those who do most have very few pings, and with Apple/Android now explicitly asking for location permissions the utility of the data which is available will decrease dramatically. Google, Apple, Verizon etc have significantly more due to their centrality in the technology but to my knowledge directly sell none of it. I understand the concern to for privacy but NYT makes the issue seem larger than it is.

darkkindness 7y ago
Do you believe the piece linked in the first paragraph[0] describes an outlier in terms of data collection? It shows how location data from a single low-lying location tracking company had enough pings to reliably pinpoint home and work locations of individuals, enough to de-anonymize and interview them. This does not seem like sparse data. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/locat... (discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833718)
- heurist 7y ago
  It's definitely possible, but when I have looked at the movement data myself maybe 0.5% of houses in my city had any pings. Half the time there is no way to tell if the pings come from residents or visitors. So the odds of being one of those people is low. Minimal effort to secure your privacy can prevent you from being one of these people. People should also be aware that their name and addresses are already available without mobile data. My opinion is that the data has tremendous potential to make retail/housing markets more energy efficient and should be available for commercial applications, though maybe sellers/consumers of the data should be licensed. Won't go into detail but I think it will ultimately help in the fight against climate change.

darkkindness 7y ago

Do you believe the piece linked in the first paragraph[0] describes an outlier in terms of data collection? It shows how location data from a single low-lying location tracking company had enough pings to reliably pinpoint home and work locations of individuals, enough to de-anonymize and interview them. This does not seem like sparse data. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/locat... (discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833718)

heurist 7y ago
It's definitely possible, but when I have looked at the movement data myself maybe 0.5% of houses in my city had any pings. Half the time there is no way to tell if the pings come from residents or visitors. So the odds of being one of those people is low. Minimal effort to secure your privacy can prevent you from being one of these people. People should also be aware that their name and addresses are already available without mobile data. My opinion is that the data has tremendous potential to make retail/housing markets more energy efficient and should be available for commercial applications, though maybe sellers/consumers of the data should be licensed. Won't go into detail but I think it will ultimately help in the fight against climate change.