A huge but little-known industry has cropped up around monetizing people’s movements

Location firm Near describes itself as “The World’s Largest Dataset of People’s Behavior in the Real-World,” with data representing “1.6B people across 44 countries.” Mobilewalla boasts “40+ Countries, 1.9B+ Devices, 50B Mobile Signals Daily, 5+ Years of Data.” X-Mode’s website claims its data covers “25%+ of the Adult U.S. population monthly.”

Fast food restaurants and other businesses have been known to buy location data for advertising purposes down to a person’s steps. For example, in 2018, Burger King ran a promotion in which, if a customer’s phone was within 600 feet of a McDonalds, the Burger King app would let the user buy a Whopper for one cent.

Outlogic (formerly known as X-Mode) offers a license for a location dataset titled “Cyber Security Location data” on Datarade for $240,000 per year. The listing says “Outlogic’s accurate and granular location data is collected directly from a mobile device’s GPS.”

    • Karna@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      36·
      10 months ago

      This is how I explained it to one of my friends who is/was definitely a member of “I’ve got nothing to hide” club -

      • Suppose you are in a pay-to-use toilet minding your own Business.
      • That pay-to-use toilet is managed by a public/private entity called ToiletBook.
      • Suddenly you notice a (hidden) camera in the room.
      • When confronted, the owner confirms the only reason they took your picture to suggest you the perfect underwear based on your size. And, there is a legal guarantee that picture/data will never be used for any other purpose and only be processed by machine.
      • Will you still go to such toilet?

      BTW, that friend stopped talking to me afterward; not sure why 🤔 (Edit: I should stop giving shitty examples to anyone, as it seems ) 🤐

    • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
      14·
      10 months ago

      I’ve heard others suggest something like “then you won’t mind giving me your SSN/SIN, bank account details and PIN, all your e-mail and computer passwords…” and whatever else you can think of, and if they are still ok with that, then add “and I’ll post them on the internet.” I don’t know how well it works though as I haven’t had the chance to try it.
      People who say this are assuming benign, rational actors, but there are plenty of predatory and irrational ones that will misuse your data. So a list of examples, general and specific, may help there.
      Hmm, could we as a community compile such a list for people to use as a kit (assuming it hasn’t been done already)? Then when people get the opportunity to use it, they could provide feedback that can be used to improve the kit. E.g., which examples work best, which don’t, presentation methods, etc. Does this sound like something people would want, and/or want to contribute to? I know that I’d find it handy.

  • Rayspekt@kbin.social
    15·
    10 months ago

    I might know the answer beforehand, but still: Does it change anything regarding data collection if I turn off my location on android in the top menu?

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
      11·
      10 months ago

      Carrier probably collect and sell your location radio direction and range telemetry from towers. Especially with 5G, high antenna diversity and beam forming automatic gain control can probably locate you better than 10 meters at all times.

      What I want to know is, how can I buy this data for people I don’t like ?

        • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
          2·
          10 months ago

          Yes, 3 towers just need to know how strong your signal is, the intersection of 3 circle is where you are.

          But for a long time, antenna towers have multiple antenna, so each tower know your azimuth and distance on its own.

          There is no escape. This is why ham radio was kneecapped too.

            • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
              1·
              10 months ago

              By forbidding encryption so that hans can’t carry civil internet. And then by not using bandwidth, ham get confined to smaller and smaller sections of the spectrum.

  • doctortofu@reddthat.com
    5·
    10 months ago

    And that’s why location is always off on all my devices, and gets turned on only when I want to search for something nearby or use navigation. Then it goes back off until the next time I need it.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
      12·
      10 months ago

      Your location can still be triangulated from cell towers. But maybe fewer companies have access to that info.

      • cmeerw
        8·
        10 months ago

        Also the location of known Wifi networks.