U.S. Government Using Mobile Ad Location Data to Track Compliance With Curbs on Movement

[Greenmeenie]

Is this just fearmongering? Has ANYBODY actually been stopped or received a knock on their door by police based on this? I mean seriously. Come on. One story. Has anyone come forward with a story saying how the police have tracked their movements and come a calling? No. Relax people. The deep state is not coming for ya.

 

[Rogifan]

So they’re getting this data from advertisers not cellular providers?

 

[iamgalt]

Yes but will they relinquish the monitoring after this has passed?

No. No they won’t. They are going to use COVID-19 to step all over our rights while it’s happening, and then never end any of them, in the same way the PATRIOT act is still in place.

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

Good. They'll see I don't care about their stupid "stay at home" BS.

I’m all for protecting the elderly, but this has really opened my eyes as to how willing most people are to just hand over there freedoms and blindly follow what the government tells them to do.

It’s also been telling just how quickly people panic-buy at the grocery stores and how wildly unprepared we are for a serious national disaster.

Of course maybe I’m just jaded. My business (tour buses for musicians) was one of the first industries affected when this thing reached the U.S.. Until the arenas re-open, we’re dead in the water and living off what little savings we have. And since we made a little bit of money last year, we don’t qualify for this magic check that everyone else seems to be set to receive.

We could lose our home and everything else because of this. But oh well, I guess hiding at home from the flu while politicians play games to make it look like they’re part of the solution is worth it. /S

If you’re high risk, stay at home and have your groceries delivered; the rest of us need to get our lives (and this economy) back to normal.

 

[1146331]

Well with people largely ignoring the shelter in place orders, its justified.

The mayor of Boston is resorting to zip-tying basketball nets in the public courts in Boston to discourage people from playing.

It's not justified.

The United States has something called a constitution that limits what the government can do and protects its citizens.

This is nothing but a violation of privacy and I'm sure there will be a lawsuit over it.

 

[ChromeAce]

The key word in this is 'anonymized.'

There's a world of difference between the Government tracking individuals to ensure their compliance, and using anonymised data to map trends.

THAT or a good pair pair of sunglasses will keep you safe from rogue police.

 

[RalfTheDog]

knowing will do what exactly? Is everyone gonna get an electro shock through their phone if they don’t comply?

what if you live in NYC for example with lots of skyscrapers and therefore people living „at the same spot“ just on a different level? Last time I was in Manhattan, the GPS was jumping around like crazy in certain areas anyway

If large numbers of people are all hanging out in a specific park, they know to send the cops to that park. If large numbers of people show up at a park every day at 7:00pm, they know to send police to that park at 6:30pm.

It's about knowing where people are, so you can send them home or make them spread out.

 

[1146331]

I’m all for protecting the elderly, but this has really opened my eyes as to how willing most people are to just hand over there freedoms and blindly follow what the government tells them to do.

It’s also been telling just how quickly people panic-buy at the grocery stores and how wildly unprepared we are for a serious national disaster.

Of course maybe I’m just jaded. My business (tour buses for musicians) was one of the first industries affected when this thing reached the U.S.. Until the arenas re-open, we’re dead in the water and living off what little savings we have. And since we made a little bit of money last year, we don’t qualify for this magic check that everyone else seems to be set to receive.

We could lose our home and everything else because of this. But oh well, I guess hiding at home from the flu while politicians play games to make it look like they’re part of the solution is worth it. /S

This. Most Americans do not value their freedom and they will not value it until they realize it's gone and they are living in a Soviet Union-style dystopia.

 

[Weaselboy]

Of course maybe I’m just jaded. My business (tour buses for musicians) was one of the first industries affected when this thing reached the U.S.. Until the arenas re-open, we’re dead in the water and living off what little savings we have. And since we made a little bit of money last year, we don’t qualify for this magic check that everyone else seems to be set to receive.

Sorry this is a little off-topic, but I was reading about the relief package some this morning and you might be eligible for a small business loan that is part of package. The article said you get the SBA loan and as long as you use it to keep paying all your employees, the loan is forgiven later. Hope this helps some.

If you need more info, shoot me a PM and I'll see if I can find the article for you.

 

[iOS Geek]

Go ahead and track me all you want. * I'll bore the hell out of you! All they're going to see is me going grocery shopping on Mondays and going to and from the hospital (work) Tuesday-Saturday. Oh and my 2-mile morning run. (Which we ARE still allowed to do where I live because people are following the distancing guidelines. So well in fact that the town has decided to leave the parks and trails OPEN for exercise. Only playgrounds are closed).

It's not like they don't already know where we are every minute of every day as it is...but yeah...someone could turn this into a nice little privacy violation. I'm a healthcare worker who is in favor of doing what it takes to stop this thing. But DO think I'm gonna start keeping track of all the little "too far" things. At some point...they are going to go from "trying to help solve this problem" to going way too far. My governor is getting close. He's on a bit of a power trip right now and he really seems to be enjoying it. Of all the restrictions he's put on us...I really am starting to wonder which one's will NOT be removed when this is over.

 

[1146331]

Go ahead and track me all you want. * I'll bore the hell out of you! All they're going to see is me going grocery shopping on Mondays and going to and from the hospital (work) Tuesday-Saturday.

It's not like they don't already know where we are every minute of every day as it is...but yeah...someone could turn this into a nice little privacy violation. I'm a healthcare worker who is in favor of doing what it takes to stop this thing. But DO think I'm gonna start keeping track of all the little "too far" things. At some point...they are going to go from "trying to help solve this problem" to going way too far. My governor is getting close. He's on a bit of a power trip right now and he really seems to be enjoying it. Of all the restrictions he's put on us...I really am starting to wonder which one's will NOT be removed when this is over.

We should just tape our phones to squirrels or pigeons to make things interesting and entertaining for the government.
[automerge]1585579314[/automerge]

I think this is a good use of anonymous location data and I don't mind it. Perhaps officials can use to adjust policy in the future. Of course, I'm worried about non-anonymous data such as what Israel is implementing. However, is there also a law in Israel mandating that people carry mobile devices now? It's a simple matter to leave that at home if you don't want to be tracked. You can turn off location services, but these days I doubt there is truly a way to turn if off.

"anonymous" data.

"Anonymous" Data Won't Protect Your Identity

A new study demonstrates it is surprisingly easy to ID an individual within a supposedly incognito data set

www.scientificamerican.com

Researchers spotlight the lie of 'anonymous' data | TechCrunch

Researchers from two universities in Europe have published a method they say is able to correctly re-identify 99.98% of individuals in anonymized data

techcrunch.com

 

[NT1440]

The only difference between the US surveillance state and China’s (whom we’re all supposed to regard as an enemy) is China is upfront about it.

The US just has mechanisms and partnerships built into the private sector surveillance (adtech) to give a glimmer of plausible deniability.

 

[DoctorTech]

The key word in this is 'anonymized.'

There's a world of difference between the Government tracking individuals to ensure their compliance, and using anonymised data to map trends.

It is "anonymized". But it probably wouldn't take too long for someone to guess who is spending 20+ hours per day at your home address.
[automerge]1585579986[/automerge]

We should just tape our phones to squirrels or pigeons to make things interesting and entertaining for the government.
[automerge]1585579314[/automerge]

"anonymous" data.

"Anonymous" Data Won't Protect Your Identity

A new study demonstrates it is surprisingly easy to ID an individual within a supposedly incognito data set

www.scientificamerican.com

Researchers spotlight the lie of 'anonymous' data | TechCrunch

Researchers from two universities in Europe have published a method they say is able to correctly re-identify 99.98% of individuals in anonymized data

techcrunch.com

Thank you for posting those links

 

[RalfTheDog]

It is "anonymized". But it probably wouldn't take too long for someone to guess who is spending 20+ hours per day at your home address.
[automerge]1585579986[/automerge]

Thank you for posting those links

I think the way the system works, they know X number of people were at Y location for Z minutes. They are not tracking, User # 2342455 went from X to Y to Z.

 

[deeddawg]

The type of data you're describing still has to be acquired via the use of a court order, at least in the US. The phone companies don't just pass it out to anyone who asks for it, and that includes the government.

Yes, identifiable data about a named individual would be subject to requiring a court order.

De-identified / anonymized data though? You still positive that is going to require a court order?

 

[DoctorTech]

I think the way the system works, they know X number of people were at Y location for Z minutes. They are not tracking, User # 2342455 went from X to Y to Z.

I hope you are right. However, the raw data collected by the marketing apps often allows them to continuously monitor where a particular phone is located on a minute by minute basis. Over the course of a few days, you could easily determine where a person normally sleeps at night then it is a simple public records search to find out who owns that house or rents that apartment. The story is vague about exactly what level of information is being used for "tracking" purposes.

 

[JosephAW]

The govmnt will probably start sending text alerts to cell phones that are clustered to vacate immediately or authorities will show up.

 

[Queen6]

Well with people largely ignoring the shelter in place orders, its justified.

The mayor of Boston is resorting to zip-tying basketball nets in the public courts in Boston to discourage people from playing.

Enough said;

Individuals still thinking COVID-19 is a non issue words fail. Right now individual actions matter, as consequences are serious to say the least...

Q-6

 

[Rocko99991]

While also using the pandemic to call for the need for more surveillance to "protect" us.

Just like 9/11

 

[0924487]

Jokes on you, the IC intelligence community. I block all ad and analytics traffic on a network level. All my network traffics are over a secure VPN to HQ, which then routes exit traffic through a commercial VPN or Tor based on traffic and packet analysis at the gateway.

So, unless the server hosting the web content is also natively hosting first-party ads and analytics without using an advertising network API and without running an internal dedicated ad server or API proxy, nothing will reach me. Therefore, for ones that do reach me, I don’t mind because they are safe, and I believe this is the only legitimate way of advertising and analytics on the web.

There is a log of the ads that are blocked on the network. It is randomly delayed and passed to VMs with Tor-enabled Firefox, all ads are randomly clicked there silently, opened and interacted with silently for a random number of times between 0 and 5 million, and for a random duration between 0.002 to 20 seconds. Each interaction is a stateless RAM-only instance with a new Tor identity, and a randomized set of Firefox profiles.

If you click on every Malicious Ad, that’s going to break the banks of advertisers. A real click can cost $25 just for visiting the advertiser. It is also very boring for analytics octopuses. Having a preference for everything is the same as having no preferences at all.

Trying to act human-like will only generate bot-like patterns that you would never have expected or realized. This is just math. Therefore, you need to act “obviously like a bot” and “no way that’s a bot” randomly, like a bipolar.

 

[brucemr]

I don’t really have a problem with anonymized location tracking in this situation. But I suspect its actual effectiveness at significantly slowing the rate of virus spread would be trivial.

Tracking tied to specific individual like done in China, S. Korea, and possibly Israel theoretically allows such things as 1) contact tracing, 2) quarantine compliance of existing and potentially infected (due to contacts and/or travel) individuals, 3) identification of regional “stay at home except for essential reasons” order violators.

But I do not believe that level of tracking would be possible to effectively implement in USA, and probably most countries in Europe, especially no. 3. For several reasons, mostly practical.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I'm sure, I was merely pointing out how people are not taking this seriously. I see neighbors having friends over their house. I understand going to a house, staying 10 feet away [outside] to shoot the breeze a bit but they're inside. I public path around deer island is always full. My kids asked a number of times, to go to deer island for walk, but I'm like absolutely not.

My wife and I are still visiting her mom and brother a few times a week... in the past two weeks I've interacted with fewer than ten people, so I think I'm doing okay with this social distancing thing.

Not seeing my mom. Her health isn't as good as that of my mother-in-law, so I'm less willing to take risks with her. But I call her regularly.

 

[Freeangel1]

wow. this is scary. big brother Is watching
I hear the horror stories of the NSA doing all sorts of wire tapping and sifting thru large amounts of data on innocent Americans.
This is why I never use CLOUD services. I keep all my own data on my hard drive.
once you upload your personal data to someone else's server farm you have lost control of your personal life and cant get it back or delete it.

and if the internet some day gets taken over or goes down you lost access to your data permanently.

Russia completed it's own private internet last year. it is completely firewall walled from hour internet
if we are attacked by Russian cyber criminals and our internet goes down. they don't have to worry
they have there own internet
SAME WITH CHINA AND North Korea

 

[longofest]

There's a certain threshold where this kind of application makes sense, and a threshold where this becomes a bad thing. Seeing hundreds of anonymized people congregating in a park is where it makes sense - lets you dispatch police to tell people to break it up and go back home.

Now, if this gets to a level where they are looking for the 11th device in a small radius and then they dispatch - well, that's certainly veering towards police state. However, the latter scenario implies a certain amount of resources that the police just don't have, and I think even the officials would agree that the negatives outweigh the positives in that case.

 

[dan110]

The key word in this is 'anonymized.'

There's a world of difference between the Government tracking individuals to ensure their compliance, and using anonymised data to map trends.

Have you learned nothing from Edward Snowden?