Technology
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The act of collecting the location data should be illegal. Selling it should never have been possible.
Arguably the location data has several purposes, and needs to be collected but shouldn't have been available for sale. It's bad enough you can't keep law enforcement out of it but even worse when random businesses get the information.
That said, in this day and age, it should be a no brainier that your phone is a tracking device for multiple organizations and we should all keep that in mind
I would argue it’s worse that law enforcement can just buy data they would otherwise need a warrant to access. In the case of broad data (e.g. location data for every cellphone user in a neighborhood or city) law enforcement can’t legally seize that at all but they can buy it from a broker. It’s a major fourth amendment violation.
You make a valid point, but I have to disagree about the need to collect the data without consent. I think the key here is opt-in. The way cellular devices currently work there is no way to use one without the location tracking. That is not technically required. It's a design choice on the part of the telecommunications companies. Let's imagine a telecommunications infrastructure that does not and technically can not track identifying location information. With such an infrastructure, the potential for abuse is immediately gone. Then let people opt-in to location tracking services using apps or other features on their device on an individual basis. I'm not against giving people individual choices. It's the forced location information gathering that needs to go.
Americans: we will cry foul online until we get an adequate transportation system.
Also Americans: we will cry foul online if you try to collect the data that you need to plan a transportation system.
Just one example of how phone data is useful.
Why in the world would you need phone data for that???
Nearly all existing public transportation was designed before cell phones. And there's so many better ways to get that data... In fact, I'm not sure anyone uses individually identifiable tracking to plan public transportation... It's neither necessary or even convenient for that
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662948/utilising-mobile-network-data.pdf
74 page document about mobile phone data and transportation modeling.
Origin destination data from cell phones is useful for fairly obvious reasons.
Keep licking those boots
Unfortunately, I am the boot in this case.
Except we don't have an adequate transportation system despite all the data they keep collecting.
I can't comment on that! Just that phone data is very valuable for transportation modelling!
Sure. My point is that it's irrelevant. You're acting like there's a trade off between privacy and the public good, but because the goal is profitability we get neither privacy nor public good.
Oh I agree. My original comment was adding to the one preceeding mine, not a direct response to the article. Yes, the US needs GDPR, despite it making aspects of my job annoying I am glad it exists.