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Honestly, I'm not sure it needs to be illegal. I'm not sure it shouldn't be either. I wholeheartedly admit, some of our data providers are shady, and there's n

by Cd00d 4y ago

Honestly, I'm not sure it needs to be illegal. I'm not sure it shouldn't be either. I wholeheartedly admit, some of our data providers are shady, and there's no way I would go work for them. I don't like the way they mislead people. That said, the data we get is anonymous. Sure, if I know enough about you, and you're in one of my panels, it's feasible that I might be able to figure out which panelist you are. I know there's been some kerfuffle there with less than upstanding "private investigators" and bounty hunters in the past. But, the data we deal with is far too expensive for those sorts. We find valuable consumer behavior insights the data at regional levels. That creates information that's valuable not only on Wall St, but to retailers and brands, who are desperate for anything to help them understand market share and loyalty. I dunno. It's a weird world. It's also a very commoditized world. Just having access to the data is no longer the main value add - you have to provide the meaning of it as well.

ProjectArcturis 4y ago
There's no way to anonymize location data. Where does your phone spend the night plus where does your phone spend the weekday equals a unique identifier when cross-referenced with an address database.
- burnished 4y ago
  Bin it until its anonymous again. Your route is too identifying, but is "people who appear to be driving away from a residential location between 9:30 and 10"? Fun to think about.
- Cd00d 4y ago
  That's a fair point, and I'm guessing why my previous comment is being downvoted. I know our location provider did some things proactively - like they would not geofence hospitals, for example, but "home" is likely very visible. That's a dataset I didn't work on as much, so maybe I'm not being sensitive enough to the "this should be illegal" argument. I guess on reflection misleading you for the collection should be illegal, though how to do that isn't obvious. What I've worked on the most is people's credit card transaction histories, and that's quite a bit more naturally anonymous, though again, if you know enough about a person they would be discoverable.

by Cd00d 4y ago

ProjectArcturis 4y ago

There's no way to anonymize location data. Where does your phone spend the night plus where does your phone spend the weekday equals a unique identifier when cross-referenced with an address database.

burnished 4y ago
Bin it until its anonymous again. Your route is too identifying, but is "people who appear to be driving away from a residential location between 9:30 and 10"? Fun to think about.
Cd00d 4y ago
That's a fair point, and I'm guessing why my previous comment is being downvoted. I know our location provider did some things proactively - like they would not geofence hospitals, for example, but "home" is likely very visible. That's a dataset I didn't work on as much, so maybe I'm not being sensitive enough to the "this should be illegal" argument. I guess on reflection misleading you for the collection should be illegal, though how to do that isn't obvious. What I've worked on the most is people's credit card transaction histories, and that's quite a bit more naturally anonymous, though again, if you know enough about a person they would be discoverable.