#location data

So here is the long and short of it:

Google used (uses) geofencing data, location data that undeniably shows where you and your phone have been.

Google sells this data to data brokers and advertisers, whether you like it or not. And yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple also did/does this, but if they do, Tim Cook has done a yeoman’s job of keeping it secret.

Google also hands out your location data to police departments (and governmental agencies led by conservative, anti-abortion Republicans, but I’m sure that’s unimportant, right?).

Now—and here’s the crux of the matter—just as the government was using Google’s location data to prosecute January 6th rioters, Google has had a sudden change of heart and will effectively limit their ability to remotely store your GPS information on their servers (which means it will mostly only be available locally on your Android phone’s hard drive, thus making it significantly harder - not completely impossible - for Google to give the police access to bulk location data, even if presented with a search warrant).

The bottom line is, it was always wrong for Google to collect and then sell their “reverse location search data” to advertisers, data miners, the police and the government. The germane question is, why now? Why has Google suddenly found Jesus, so to speak, and decided that customers privacy rights are sacrosanct, just as the U.S. government is using that data to prosecute Trump sycophants who wanted to overthrow the election?

SN: I think the whole green bubble vs. blue bubble argument is a stupid made up problem by whiny people who don’t have enough real problems in life (if you disagree then please go make your own post), and Idgaf if you’re an Android or an iPhone user. If you’re happy with your phone, that’s all that matters — but our privacy rights constantly being violated isn’t trivial, that’s actually very important. And Google suddenly deciding that now is the best time for them to end their practice of ratting people out seems highly sus.

👉🏿 https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/11/25/the-maga-tourist-geofence-and-the-violent-confederate-flag-toting-geofence/

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs or LPRs) are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car's location, date, and time. They also capture your car's make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points.

[23 Oct 2024]

Privacy advocates gained access to a powerful tool bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies that can track smartphone locations around the world. Abortion clinics, places of worship, and individual people can all be monitored without a warrant.

On a computer screen a map shows the movements of smartphones around the globe. Zooming into an abortion clinic in the south of the United States, the online tool shows more than 700 red dots over the clinic itself, each representing a phone, and by extension, a person. 

The tool, called Locate X and made by a company called Babel Street, then narrows down to the movements of a specific device which had visited the clinic. This phone started at a residence in Alabama in mid-June. It then went by a Lowe’s Home Improvement store, traveled along a highway, went past a gas station, visited a church, crossed over into Florida, and then stopped at the abortion clinic for approximately two hours. They had only been to the clinic once, according to the data. 

The device then headed back, and crossed back over into Alabama. The tool also showed their potential home, based on the high frequency at which the device stopped there. The tool clearly shows this home address on its map interface.

In other words, someone had traveled from Alabama, where abortion is illegal after the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, to an abortion clinic in Florida, where abortion is limited but still available early in a pregnancy. Based on the data alone, it is unclear who exactly this person is or what they were doing, whether they were receiving an abortion themselves, assisting someone seeking one, or going to the clinic for another reason. But it would be trivial for U.S. authorities, some of which already have access to this tool, to go one step further and unmask this or other abortion clinic visitors. 

[...]

The videos also show that while Apple and Google have taken steps either to stymie the flow of location data in general, or remove sensitive locations like abortion clinics from their own banks of data, the highly sensitive movements of visitors to clinics or essentially any other location are still exposed on a massive scale and finding their way into tools used by U.S. law enforcement. Through a complex data supply chain involving apps or ads on a phone, peoples’ movements are included in Locate X as a side-product of the mobile advertising system.

No. No.

No no no no.

@staff what the hell were you thinking?

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Datastream Group provides a complete suite of data products and services covering both B2C and B2B markets. Our offerings include internet advertising data coupled with hashed emails, cookies and mobile location data with MAIDS, along with and opt-in email lists, direct mail lists, list brokerage, data analysis and management, and email marketing services.