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Your Location Data Is Being Sold—Often Without Your Knowledge
This may be paid content. Net: review apps on your smart phone, and turn off Location Services for apps where appropriate.
A snippet:
But the fragmentation also is because of a very real fear of the public backlash and legal liability that might occur if there were a breach. Imagine the Equifax breach, except instead of your Social Security number, it's everywhere you've been, including your home, your workplace and your children's schools.
The fix, at least for now, is that with most individual data vendors holding only parts of your data, your complete, identifiable profile is never all in one place. Giants like Facebook and Alphabet 's Google, which do have all your data in one place, say they are diligent about throwing away or not gathering what they don't need, and eliminating personally identifying information from the remainder.
Yet as the industry and the ways to track us expand, the possibility that our whereabouts will be exposed multiplies. If you've ever felt clever because an app on your phone asked to track your location and you said no, this should make you feel a little less smug: There are plenty of ways to track you without getting your permission. Some of the most intrusive are the easiest to implement.
The spy in your pocket
Your telco knows where you are at all times, because it knows which cell towers your phone is near. In the U.S., how much data service providers sell is up to them.
Another way you can be tracked without your knowing it is through any open Wi-Fi hot spot you might pass. If your phone's Wi-Fi is on, you're constantly broadcasting a unique address and a history of past Wi-Fi connections. Retailers sometimes use these addresses to identify repeat customers, and they can also use them to track you as you go from one of their stores to another.
This may be paid content. Net: review apps on your smart phone, and turn off Location Services for apps where appropriate.
A snippet:
But the fragmentation also is because of a very real fear of the public backlash and legal liability that might occur if there were a breach. Imagine the Equifax breach, except instead of your Social Security number, it's everywhere you've been, including your home, your workplace and your children's schools.
The fix, at least for now, is that with most individual data vendors holding only parts of your data, your complete, identifiable profile is never all in one place. Giants like Facebook and Alphabet 's Google, which do have all your data in one place, say they are diligent about throwing away or not gathering what they don't need, and eliminating personally identifying information from the remainder.
Yet as the industry and the ways to track us expand, the possibility that our whereabouts will be exposed multiplies. If you've ever felt clever because an app on your phone asked to track your location and you said no, this should make you feel a little less smug: There are plenty of ways to track you without getting your permission. Some of the most intrusive are the easiest to implement.
The spy in your pocket
Your telco knows where you are at all times, because it knows which cell towers your phone is near. In the U.S., how much data service providers sell is up to them.
Another way you can be tracked without your knowing it is through any open Wi-Fi hot spot you might pass. If your phone's Wi-Fi is on, you're constantly broadcasting a unique address and a history of past Wi-Fi connections. Retailers sometimes use these addresses to identify repeat customers, and they can also use them to track you as you go from one of their stores to another.
