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A long time ago, I read an article about a journalist that did just that: bought a pack of “anonymized” location data set, then promptly tracked and interviewed
by TheBozzCL 2y ago
A long time ago, I read an article about a journalist that did just that: bought a pack of “anonymized” location data set, then promptly tracked and interviewed one of the people in said data set.
It kills me that I can’t remember where the article was exactly, because it’s one of mu favorite examples of why fighting indiscriminate tracking is important. I remember it being from a Scandinavian newspaper, maybe Dannish?
- Zelphyr 2y agoIt may be the same article, I'm not sure, but I remember reading something similar where researchers also showed that the more anonymized the data, the less useful (and thus valuable) it becomes. Maybe there's a balance to be found but, ultimately, it seems like "anonymized" is a pipe dream.
- dotandgtfo 2y agoCould it be this Norwegian one from NRK? https://nrkbeta.no/2020/12/03/my-phone-was-spying-on-me-so-i-tracked-down-the-surveillants/ https://nrkbeta.no/2020/12/03/my-phone-was-spying-on-me-so-i... The original in Norwegian https://www.nrk.no/norge/xl/avslort-av-mobilen-1.14911685 https://www.nrk.no/norge/xl/avslort-av-mobilen-1.14911685 has some nice visualizations.
- TheBozzCL 2y agoI think this could be it, thanks!
- bootwoot 2y agoProbably this NYT article on de-anonymized phone data? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/locat...
- writeslowly 2y agoOne of the worst (best?) examples I remember was the Web of Trust extension in 2016. The company claimed it was selling anonymized user data but it was actually leaking information through recorded URLs about all sorts of private things like account names, addresses, ongoing legal investigations, etc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOT_Services#Sale_of_user-related_data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOT_Services#Sale_of_user-rela...
- TheBozzCL 2y agoOh crap, I remember using that back in the day.
- fragmede 2y agoRe-identification is an active area of study, with experts in the field not believing full anonymity is really actually possible. https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/07/23/134090/youre-very-easy-to-track-down-even-when-your-data-has-been-anonymized/amp/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/07/23/134090/youre-ver...
- tpolzer 2y agoOne of the oldest (AFAIK) occurrences of this was AOL releasing a data set of "anonymized" search queries in 2006 and it took a about a day for the first person to be deanonymized. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html https://techcrunch.com/2006/08/09/first-person-identified-from-aol-data-thelma-arnold/ https://techcrunch.com/2006/08/09/first-person-identified-fr...