.png "back to home page")
We received a large trove of location data on millions of Americans. Data like this is described as “anonymous.” It is not. https://t.co/9HkPX7DtR3
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 19, 2019
Americans need to know far more than they do now about how their personal location data is collected and shared. And lawmakers need, finally, to regulate this mushrooming industry to protect Americans’ freedom. https://t.co/9j5mCpEAfH
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 19, 2019
The article really is extremely well done, important, and timely. In addition, this accompanying piece is a very clear and simple explanation of key points, how easy it is to identify individuals from "anonymous" location information, and risks.https://t.co/Bq3rsNxCEF
— Crypti-Calli (@Iwillleavenow) December 19, 2019
We received a large trove of location data on millions of Americans. Data like this is described as “anonymous.” It is not. https://t.co/og3FmOlLKT
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 19, 2019
Months ago, someone contacted us with an astounding dataset. It tracked the precise movements of more than 12 million Americans in several major cities including Washington, New York and San Francisco. Today we published our findings: https://t.co/U6hVTTI9WU
— Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) December 19, 2019
When we first started working with the data, we wanted to see if any sensitive sites were included. I zoomed into the Pentagon and saw this.
— Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) December 19, 2019
Our jaws hit the floor.
Full piece: https://t.co/fjFufwXyIp pic.twitter.com/0GB3KnhQcR
Think your location is private? Think again. Important reporting on Big Tech’s ongoing information gathering on American citizens https://t.co/vtiwEE9V2v
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 19, 2019
This story is extraordinary, not only because it reveals how your location data are being sold to dozens of companies, but also because of the *way* the story is laid out and displayed. https://t.co/cYQK0xlaKe
— Stephen Kinsella (@stephenkinsella) December 19, 2019
NYT: "The companies that collect all this information on your movements" claim "People consent to be tracked, the data is anonymous and the data is secure. None of those claims hold up..." https://t.co/Su9nvD2N9d
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 19, 2019
Americans are subjected to always-on geolocation tracking that allow companies to monetize our every move. It's false to claim that this data is completely anonymous. We can be individually tracked, raising real risks to our safety and national security.https://t.co/TCollGFuHO
— Rohit Chopra (@chopraftc) December 19, 2019
Investigation of the smartphone tracking industry - largely unregulated companies are logging movements of millions of people w/mobile phones. @nytimes obtained file of 50billion location pings from phones of 12million+ people, by @stuartathompson @cwarzelhttps://t.co/kyUwxIiPEO
— Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) December 19, 2019
Really interesting piece from @stuartathompson and @cwarzel on cellphone surveillance!
— Philosophy Tube (@PhilosophyTube) December 19, 2019
Their main concern here is the data could be abused or hacked; however I think the more philosophically provocative position is that it's immoral to even gather it! https://t.co/uu88SDvaCU
“The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself” | Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy https://t.co/DNnJnMANTv
— Stephanie Hare (@hare_brain) December 19, 2019
In the U.S., as in most of the world, no federal law limits what has become a vast and lucrative trade in human tracking. Welcome to “One Nation, Tracked,” the result of a monthslong @PrivacyProject investigation into the smartphone tracking industry. https://t.co/GTyRh5Z0ut
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 19, 2019
Holy sh*t, the @nytimes obtained a file with more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans! If you still use your phone after that you are crazy https://t.co/uddXHtbpoI
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) December 19, 2019
Every minute of every day, companies are logging people's movements and storing the information in gigantic data files.
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 19, 2019
The @PrivacyProject obtained one of the files.
It held more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of 12 million Americans. https://t.co/eZmYTmkh4i
Amazing the Ad Age and Adweek have so far had nothing to say about this story. https://t.co/0sZDENe3RD
— adcontrarian (@AdContrarian) December 19, 2019
"Citizens would rise up in outrage if the government mandated that every person carry a tracking device that revealed their location 24 hours a day. Yet, Americans have, app by app, consented to just such a system run by private companies." https://t.co/Rcych04B8B
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) December 19, 2019
And here we go: more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans, across several major cities. See how easy it is to be tracked through apps on our phones, and how easy it is to get access to this surveillance datahttps://t.co/743zmmnPb2
— Sarah A | ساره ?? (@sa0un) December 19, 2019
Thought you couldn't be shocked by invasions of your privacy anymore? Read the first part of @cwarzel and @stuartathompson blockbuster investigation for @nytopinion. https://t.co/5BEEsjbB7r pic.twitter.com/lUK0lhNqNM
— Max Strasser (@maxstrasser) December 19, 2019
Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy - The New York Times https://t.co/NfAQw9PIeH
— Octave Klaba (@olesovhcom) December 19, 2019
Anyone who has ever granted a third-party app access to Location Services could be in a location-tracking database of 12 million phones: https://t.co/0IjcHrtHTN
— Adam Levin (@Adam_K_Levin) December 19, 2019
The data included more than 50 billion rows of data. That's 50 billion places people have been. Shops, workplaces, homes, hotels. All laid out in intricate detail, tied to an ID that let us follow individual paths.
— Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) December 19, 2019
An excellent article that demonstrates how important privacy can be, and reveals just how much information can be gleaned from tracking phone records, establishing your identity and documenting your life.
— Bryan William Jones (@BWJones) December 19, 2019
There is real danger here with info that is already being exploited... https://t.co/geC03R1SAH
This article is a must-read. There’s a handy link to reduce how trackable you are on your phone. I just did. https://t.co/ksZa3W4qhk
— Mira Kamdar (@mirakamdar) December 19, 2019
"Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies ...are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones"
— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) December 19, 2019
The NYT obtained a file containing 50 billion location records from 12 million phones. Massive piece: https://t.co/6P4KfkZt1r pic.twitter.com/7pI8wk274P
"[C]itizens would surely rise up in outrage if the government attempted to mandate that every person above the age of 12 carry a tracking device that revealed their location 24 hours a day. Yet ... Americans have ... consented to just such a system run by private companies." https://t.co/Odjmct3F7S
— James Joyner (@DrJJoyner) December 19, 2019
Among other things, stories like this are an argument for platform owners exerting (even) more control over what developers and publishers are allowed to do, and doing more aggressive curation of the app stores https://t.co/Yy02zUOB1K
— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) December 19, 2019
A data leak powers a great piece by @stuartathompson and @cwarzel on the personal location data free-for-all.
— Jonathan Zittrain (@zittrain) December 19, 2019
Another reason for brokers to be information fiduciaries.
Meanwhile, self-styled privacy champion Apple could tweak iOS to default to city-level location sharing only. https://t.co/NpJ2ForfSf
Yesterday I saw a US lawmaker claiming that figuring out location from your IP address is a nefarious privacy violation if a big tech company does it.
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) December 19, 2019
In reality, no name companies are buying & selling your real-time location data from apps & carriers.https://t.co/xl7R9uDS4g
Reminds me of that time, in 2011, @kirkgoldsberry found locational breadcrumbs in iPhone backup files: https://t.co/Rr6LCTvLsj
— Joshua Stevens (@jscarto) December 19, 2019
This sort of tracking is troubling. That it happens on such a wide scale, and has been happening for so long, is astounding. https://t.co/oqgO7twbwP
Here is what was in the data: More than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans, across several major cities. @stuartathompson and I then spent months reporting on how we are all tracked through apps on our phones. https://t.co/CTzq1cEt4m
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) December 19, 2019
The reporting here is fantastic, I finished it and immediately went to the location settings on my iPhone and turned them off for every app except Google Maps (I have made the tactical choice for Google to be my primary data panopticon) https://t.co/8gq4SCRdib
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) December 19, 2019
"This data reveals your kid’s exact route to school and where you spent the night, or potentially even whom you spent the night with." Correct! https://t.co/Bwnzm1ujr0
— Robert Caruso (@robertcaruso) December 19, 2019
My biggest worry after reading this great piece by @cwarzel and @stuartathompson? That people simply don’t care enough to understand the larger implications of this sort of tracking. https://t.co/UnYkSyK3Wm
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) December 19, 2019
He works in the tech industry which increasingly determines what our privacy looks like. He works on drones that will be doing massive data collection as they zip around. And he's like, "meh," about ability to track his every move & perceive that he's interviewing w/a competitor.
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) December 19, 2019
wondering if this insane story, like Motherboard’s story before it, about bounty hunters buying up phone location data, will, like, actually lead the FCC to do anything meaningful about it https://t.co/uOeqS9w8D0
— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) December 19, 2019
Today @stuartathompson and I pubbed the 1st in a series on location tracking. Based off more than 50 billion location pings we obtained covering 12 million phones. It's the culmination of months of reporting. We'll be publishing 7 stories in all this week. https://t.co/MvVNWhfblO
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) December 19, 2019
Of course, a former Microsoft engineer who now works at Amazon, whose interview w/ a competitor was detectable in the location data, isn't that worried about widespread stalking of people's movements through phones. pic.twitter.com/M3C3RQAg4c
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) December 19, 2019
Apple/Google et al claim to be privacy driven companies, yet take no resp. for the externalities of their core platform. This report is chilling, but in no way a surprise. https://t.co/Hyd95mF4Jj pic.twitter.com/CKrtEndpBL
— John Battelle (@johnbattelle) December 19, 2019
WOW. “We followed military officials with security clearances as they drove home at night. We tracked law enforcement officers as they took their kids to school. We watched high-powered lawyers (and their guests) as they traveled from private jets to vacation properties.” https://t.co/4063o6Rhlq
— Peter A. Shulman ? (@pashulman) December 19, 2019
Last December, @nytimes did an amazing story on how your location gets tracked by phone apps & sold: https://t.co/YOOS6RHrxE.
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) December 19, 2019
Now, @PrivacyProject revisits the topic, w/a huge dataset of those locations & interviews with the people tracked: https://t.co/PbB152dE6z
The companies you should worry most about with regards to your privacy probably aren't the ones you're thinking of. They're the ones who siphon data off the sides where you don't see it and can't control it: trackers, ISPs, data brokers. ??? https://t.co/RpxAJ4mhtv
— Lea Kissner (@LeaKissner) December 19, 2019
To me, this great reporting has one only hope: to help convince lawmakers that we need more rules and protections. I point to this quote from Jaron Lainer in my smartphone of the decade essay: https://t.co/XcEvF3VuEo pic.twitter.com/s0ywuK8YdQ
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) December 19, 2019
How many people will say: "I don’t care if some company knows that I go to work"? Or that "I went food to Whole Foods last night”?
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) December 19, 2019
This is excellent reporting. We don't know enough about the industry to make coherent rules. It's time to stop debating the current list of privacy bills by @brianschatz, @SenMarkey, @SenatorCantwell, etc and INVESTIGATE. Diagnose, then proscribe. https://t.co/HkseTeTL23
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 19, 2019
What stands out is not the fact that our smartphones and smartphone apps are collecting our location data - that we knew - but that protections around anonymity crumble once data sets are cross-referenced or combined https://t.co/lBn5CDZ0a5
— Lauren Goode (@LaurenGoode) December 19, 2019
It’s not often you read a piece of journalism (indeed, data journalism!) that you know will turn an industry on its head and spark a new legislative agenda, but this is one of those it’ll-change-the-world pieces. https://t.co/JwcAuXwr9h
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) December 19, 2019
interesting look at smartphone tracking data from The NY Times ?It really is alarming how much data we generate every second, and just how well it’s tracked by lots of companies https://t.co/n8qTFI6H9y
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) December 19, 2019
Disturbing yet not surprising https://t.co/iwso9F01g5
— FutureShift (@futureshift) December 19, 2019
Companies dealing with users' cellphone location data promise that it's kept securely and anonymously. A new report from the NYT again serves to cast serious doubts on those claims. https://t.co/IBkmAnbVaT?
— Mike Dano (@mikeddano) December 19, 2019
Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy https://t.co/IPGbSXSzIN
— Mariana Alfonso ? (@Mariana_Alfonso) December 19, 2019
In the United States, no federal law limits what has become a vast and lucrative trade in human tracking. Welcome to “One Nation, Tracked,” the result of a monthslong investigation into the smartphone tracking industry by @stuartathompson and @cwarzel. https://t.co/RLLWDLcubC
— Privacy Project (@PrivacyProject) December 19, 2019
"The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself."
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 19, 2019
NYT Opinion is out with a huge new feature: "One Nation, Tracked." Read it: https://t.co/QQ9BHowyp7 pic.twitter.com/nNieFZyOBQ
I am officially an old technobiddy I just sent this to 5 girls and women in my family under 30 and said GIRL TURN IT OFF NOW. https://t.co/scAkXRFiwf
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) December 19, 2019
Incredible reporting and beautiful design in this frightening piece from @nytimes that analyzes how secretive private data firms are tracking your every movement, all the time: https://t.co/BAtetNE6op
— Rob Sheridan, holiday enjoyer (@rob_sheridan) December 19, 2019
“The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself.”
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) December 19, 2019
The massive NYT investigation into how you are tracked, through your phone.
(via @nytopinion @cwarzel) https://t.co/kpXJCImacB
Remarkable @nytimes maps reveal how comprehensively Americans are tracked by app makers and phone companies. https://t.co/LUfhNBReUr pic.twitter.com/gBAHWFukYr
— Bradley Peniston (@navybook) December 19, 2019
This is great work, but I really don't understand why it's being framed as "Opinion" rather than just vital reporting. https://t.co/p3zPIKHUEK
— ????? ? ?????? (@jamespmcleod) December 19, 2019
You are being tracked. Data scientists are working hard to make it even easier to do this. Everyone is complicit.
— Bryan Liles (@bryanl) December 19, 2019
Protips:
* don't carry your cell phone when doing serious crimes
* never turn on your burner at your house or job or while driving therehttps://t.co/hS6wZHDNMR
To all @privacypros: stop what you are doing and read this article. Now. Really important journalism coming out of the @nytimes.https://t.co/gfpHMxBKjy
— Trevor Hughes (@jtrevorhughes) December 19, 2019
“Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files.”https://t.co/O40VqMj3NO
— Matt Odell (@matt_odell) December 19, 2019
Location data is for sale. The NYTimes has a nice piece on why this is a big problem: https://t.co/4wvRCLF09z
— Hilary Mason (@hmason) December 19, 2019
You need to read this story.
— Zach Dorfman (@zachsdorfman) December 19, 2019
It underlines conversations I've had with intel officials bewildered that Americans will submit to a lawless, massive, private surveillance matrix far more invasive than what they would ever assent from their government.https://t.co/fduDLDbQyU
People have proposed that individuals should own the data that tech companies collect, and so earn income from what those companies do with the data. But the real solution is that tech companies should not be gathering any of this data at all. https://t.co/jrn9aIb7dw
— Chuka Ejeckam ?? (@ChukaEjeckam) December 19, 2019
Companies purchasing location data include advertising companies, real estate investment firms, geospatial analysis companies and financial institutions — all interested in learning more about where we go and what we do. https://t.co/JFANCJDFG3
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 20, 2019
Rather than building their own apps from scratch, many location data companies insert their tracking software into existing popular apps. These include weather apps, games, podcast apps, news apps, navigation apps, and more. Here’s what you need to know. https://t.co/WI9TAgV5fh
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 20, 2019
There are ways to protect yourself from location tracking right now. But laws are urgently needed to regulate the collection and sale of this personal information. https://t.co/5eJFEeN3Gg pic.twitter.com/dVUzD71RKX
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 19, 2019
We received a large trove of location data on millions of Americans. Data like this is described as “anonymous.” It is not. https://t.co/QEEkQT7UEB pic.twitter.com/ZNA9smopMw
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 20, 2019
Being a researcher has complicated my view of a lot of things and I don't have a lot of hardline stances on the media industries. But here's one: Behavioral targeting is a societal disease. https://t.co/vNCTxDj248
— Josh Braun (@josh_braun) December 19, 2019
grateful to the NYT for reporting on location surveillance with the gravity it deserves. too many people respond to surveillance stories like this with “well of course that’s happening”, and that’s how we end up with our current surveillance society https://t.co/LyVdHjmsOg
— Alison Macrina (@flexlibris) December 19, 2019
これは凄い記事だな。携帯電話の位置情報はビッグデータとして保持されているが、その中の特定の携帯電話の信号を取り出し、位置情報をつなげると個人の行動範囲がわかるようになっているとのこと。そのデバイスと実在の人物が紐付けられたらプライバシーはなくなる。 https://t.co/ywCgNqzA27
— Kazuto Suzuki (@KS_1013) December 20, 2019
We are living in the world’s most advanced surveillance system. It was built through the interplay of technological advance and the profit motive. The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself. https://t.co/TwUyy3U83S
— Seema Chishti (@seemay) December 20, 2019
NYTimes Opinion obtains a large dataset of phone locations sourced from apps. Although supposed to be anonymous, it's not difficult to identify particular people https://t.co/VmMhMJ060e pic.twitter.com/aWnA9AE9Ab
— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) December 19, 2019
None of this is new, but like so much else we don’t pay attention until it’s too late. https://t.co/ViMlgpvZ7p via @NYTOpinion
— John Sipher (@john_sipher) December 20, 2019
“If you could see the full trove, you might never use your phone the same way again,” @stuartathompson and @cwarzel write https://t.co/FOH8SoRhMv
— Privacy Project (@PrivacyProject) December 20, 2019
In case you haven't heard... Thx @franticnews https://t.co/8mIaWIASoF #infosec #locationdata #privacy #MobileSecurity #cyberaware #securityaware #dataaggregator #databroker
— Extending Reach, LLC (@ExtendingReach) December 20, 2019
Your smartphone is probably being tracked—and it's not hard to figure out who you are https://t.co/MdMCIuC6JU
— Evan Kirstel #CES2020 (@evankirstel) December 19, 2019
Your smartphone is probably being tracked—and it's not hard to figure out who you arehttps://t.co/qmol8DXEw5 via @mashable #Tech #Technology #Smartphones #mobile #dataprotection #infosec #IoT #CyberSecurity #hacking #cybercrime pic.twitter.com/lnelUS8xVG
— ?????? ??????? ? (@AudreyDesisto) December 19, 2019
Impossible to stop unless regulated. Impossible to regulate?
— Chris Garrod @CES #CES2020 (@ChrisGGarrod) December 19, 2019
Your smartphone is probably being tracked—and it's not hard to figure out who you are https://t.co/GssPoWjLVL#dataprivacy #smartphones
cc: @guzmand @psb_dc @cgledhill @nigelwalsh @ronald_vanloon @shirast@leimer