While the demographics, techniques, & reaction are all interesting, there's no support in the article text for Buzzfeed's headline claim of "almost 17k protesto

While the demographics, techniques, & reaction are all interesting, there's no support in the article text for Buzzfeed's headline claim of "almost 17k protestors had no idea a tech company was tracing their location". For example, there's no survey of the involved mobile users – or even a quote from a present individual! – to ask or otherwise confirm how many had 'no idea' of such tracking. While often people are surprised at the tracking that's happened, usually as a result of 'fine print' they've clicked-through at some point, this is a young, activist & heavy-mobile-using population. Many will know or suspect tracking is happening. The more privacy-oriented organizers often inform participants of such considerations. Those affected have probably consciously enabled many kinds of 'location sharing' options & location-sensitive apps – and then specifically used those features to share updates/photos, with explicit location disclosure, from the protest site. Many may have a generationally blasé attitude about the inevitability of such tracking. Some may even be happy that "I'm being counted". There's always controversy after mass actions as to the actual number of participants, or how many truly represent a certain local community, with biased estimates from those with agendas. A possible silver-lining of technological tracking, if the potential abuse for persecuting individuals can be prevented, is that it can turn mass actions into more-accurately-measured "super-petitions", reflecting both viewpoint & intensity-of-commitment, for change.