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London tube is rolling out wifi tracking of commuter smartphones, full scale. The announcement is full in "this is depersonalised data". But we need technical details. https://t.co/GLtgQTPWfR
— Lukasz Olejnik (@lukOlejnik) May 22, 2019
6/ TfL later published an official report, which had a similarly awesome diagram, showing how people choose to travel between Kings Cross and Waterloo.
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 22, 2019
Remember: Before, all TfL knew was where your journey started and ended, based on Oyster taps. pic.twitter.com/tGkrJVeWy2
4/ …Because the data insights it can learn about the London Underground are incredible - and could massively improve the Tube network in terms of capacity, planning, and letting apps tell us how busy stations/platforms are etc.
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 22, 2019
From July 8, TfL will track every Wi-Fi enabled device that travels across the tube network. Want to opt out? Turn your Wi-Fi offhttps://t.co/Drq5RKAmog
— Jay Owens (@hautepop) May 22, 2019
Yes, tracking by default is a bad thing, but I think this could provide some really useful info to Londoners, especially if Google and Citymapper integrate the new APIs into their apps https://t.co/28208ief06
— jon.porter (@JonPorty) May 22, 2019
Fascinating use of big data. All the usual privacy concerns but TfL seem fully engaged with that which is good. https://t.co/BtHv0d7xMv
— Andrew & Sabrina (@PsychScientists) May 22, 2019
8/ This station data also enabled TfL to time how long it takes real passengers in real conditions to traverse through a station. Here’s how long it takes to walk around Victoria station. pic.twitter.com/UDBacw9OOJ
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 22, 2019
3/ This is because it can still detect your phone’s MAC address - nothing to do with Apple computers, it’s like a unique ID number that every phone or wifi device has.
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 22, 2019
But why would TfL want to collect this data?
2/ So what exactly is happening? TfL will be using the wifi beacons already on the tube to log any devices it picks up. If you have the wifi on your phone switched on, even if you don’t connect to the wifi, it will count you.
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 22, 2019
12/ If you’d like learn more about the rollout, check out this piece I wrote for @WiredUK which has just been published:https://t.co/lqU7VETk7a
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 22, 2019
Transport for London has today announced it will track the movement of tube passengers using Wi-Fi.
— WIRED UK (@WiredUK) May 22, 2019
Read the full story below and this thread from @Psythor explaining what the changes will meanhttps://t.co/8jg5mM65Ro https://t.co/H0oPxj6TkT
London tube is rolling out wifi tracking of commuter smartphones, full scale. The announcement is full in "this is depersonalised data". But we need technical details. https://t.co/GLtgQTPWfR
— Lukasz Olejnik (@lukOlejnik) May 22, 2019
This is not great news for #privacy here in the UK??. The original pilot study a couple of years ago, https://t.co/VSFi2nPNB5, had some interesting insights. But it's almost impossible to really anonymise large location data sets, https://t.co/eTqGkZCpiO. https://t.co/iqvDIaFpEw
— Alasdair Allan (@aallan) May 22, 2019
From July, TfL is going to collect passenger movement data from every Wi-Fi connected device people carry on the Underground.
— Matt Burgess (@mattburgess1) May 22, 2019
Want to opt out? The only option is to turn Wi-Fi off.
https://t.co/b38dpvRSkf
How passengers travel between stations is largely a mystery https://t.co/ZKxRxWgQpO
— WIRED UK (@WiredUK) May 22, 2019
Fascinating use of big data. All the usual privacy concerns but TfL seem fully engaged with that which is good. https://t.co/BtHv0d7xMv
— Andrew & Sabrina (@PsychScientists) May 22, 2019
TFL is wrong: turning off Wi-Fi does not prevent it from sending Wi-Fi frames and salted hashing is not a proper anonymization. #tracking #TFL #WiFi #privacyhttps://t.co/VI7owoTBsZ
— Mathieu Cunche (@Cunchem) May 22, 2019
The 1st @TfL public #wifi #data tracking trial threw up great insights for #transport planners. Beefed up #dataprivacy measures through tokenisation and @ICOnews approval of approach now makes for mature city data use with results. https://t.co/pJXAxOQ3jn
— Andrew Collinge (@AndrewCollinge) May 22, 2019
You might want to switch your WiFi off on the Tube from this summer > TfL is going to track all London Underground users using WiFi https://t.co/A62UXCoLgk
— Martin Bryant (@MartinSFP) May 22, 2019
London Underground to start tracking all phones using Wi-Fi starting in July https://t.co/YlF0P9fJSZ pic.twitter.com/YRH3KObDQ7
— The Verge (@verge) May 22, 2019
"London’s Tube network to switch on Wi-Fi tracking by default in July"https://t.co/kGHiOZTQ4q
— Chris Heilmann (@codepo8) May 22, 2019
Mind the privacy gap. Don't worry if the connectivity is flaky, at least they got from you what they came for to show you ads.
Use the London Underground? TfL wants to know your exact route https://t.co/mDU09AWtKG
— WIRED UK (@WiredUK) May 23, 2019
This is worrying. Yet we’ll probably be ok with being tracked as long as we can still refresh/check/send an email https://t.co/UYCL6hPhcT
— Ana Brandusescu (@anabmap) May 22, 2019
#London Underground to start #tracking all #phones using #WiFi starting in July https://t.co/3K5pCLChlc @TfL #privacy @Peerlyst
— Eric Klein (@EricLKlein) May 23, 2019
London Underground to start tracking all phones using Wi-Fi starting in July https://t.co/YlF0P9fJSZ pic.twitter.com/J78rqY6rUJ
— The Verge (@verge) May 23, 2019
Yup, this is about to happen. Openly. https://t.co/uvCtBM8g0c
— Kobi Leins (@Kobotic) May 23, 2019
London’s Tube network to switch on Wi-Fi tracking by default in July | TechCrunch https://t.co/u41COAgQa7
— David M. Levinson (@trnsprtst) May 23, 2019