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Things that Transport for London can figure out by using our location data
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- haunter 3y agoBlogspam. URL should be changed to this, it's the full article https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/its-crazy-how-much-transport-for https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/its-crazy-how-much-transp... And it was actually posted here back then https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38013668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38013668 (71 comments)
- rightbyte 3y agoQuite interesting article. I guess the take away is that I need to start disabling wifi when leaving my house? I wonder if that can be done in some automatic way.
- oakesm9 3y agoThis data was collected by O2 on their customers, so I presume the data comes from what cell site you’re phone is connected to. To avoid this you’d need to have mobile data disabled or just leave your phone at home. TfL collected a separate dataset themselves using WiFi access points in the underground (covered later in the article).
- beardyw 3y agoAnd WiFi nowadays has regularly changed Mac addresses, so identification is limited (provided you don't use a WiFi with hidden SSID).
- rightbyte 3y agoMaybe the app sends requests with some timing tied to the user id? With spyware on the telephone, it should be possible to do some scheme to circumvent mac address hopping.
- traceroute66 3y agoI have to say that International Visitors map at the end of the post does not exactly reveal anything astonishing. Most visitors are found around Heathrow and around the core Central London areas. Jeez, great use of public money to find out the obvious.
- jakub_g 3y agoNote the sibling comment. You've read a stripped down blog.