Phone locations for sale - RTE Prime Time

jmcc

An update on the story:

https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2025/1104/1542156-eu-officials-tracked-by-phone-data-for-sale-investigation-shows/

afatbollix

A company brought this to the CIA and the Pentagon a few years ago.

For you and me, not much to track, They tried it in Syria first and wondered why so many Americans were in the north during the Civil War until someone said they were 'boots on the ground' or if you want to track Putin you don't track him you track his chef and body guards. If 50 of those show up at his summer house you know he's on the way there.

The funny thing is, they offered it for like 200k a month to track everyone in the world. The CIA would spend more on toilet paper. https://www.wired.com/story/how-pentagon-learned-targeted-ads-to-find-targets-and-vladimir-putin/

plodder

https://netzpolitik.org/2025/databroker-files-targeting-the-eu/

This data reveals where people live and work, as well as their behaviour and preferences. It can also show visits to clinics, religious buildings, party and trade union headquarters, as well as brothels and swingers‘ clubs.

Oh dear! 😬

I'm still wondering how this works exactly. Looking at my own Android phone, there are only a few apps that get access to location data all the time, and all three of them are either Google apps or from extremely reputable sources who would know better than to sell the data like this.

The doc above suggests that many app developers are including advertising banners which might be harvesting this data without the developer knowing. Though the user still has to grant "all the time" access to location data anyway.

Regardless, the phone platforms could (and should) be doing much more to stop this. Location data is particularly sensitive and there should be extra safeguards around it.

jmcc

It was hard not to laugh at the technology journalists in the Irish media when the Snowden Revelations happened over ten years ago. They simply didn't understand what was being disclosed and never even knew about the commerical trade in data. The apps side of thing is quite terrifying in terms of the data some of these apps harvest.

https://netzpolitik.org/2025/databroker-files-new-data-set-reveals-40000-apps-behind-location-tracking/

Now, look at the date on that article.

It mentions the less precise location data based on IP addresses. That's less accurate than precise GPS data and can be transient in that an IP address may only be assigned to a particular device for fixed time. (I run a monthly website IP address to country and web hosting provider survey across about 267 million domain names. That's only website data and the accuracy quality of the underlying webhosting provider data can be a bit iffy for some countries. There are other techniques that can be used to more precisely locate IP addresses if the IP address infrastructure is known. (Timing, pings and routers. There are patents that describe the process.))

jmcc

This is the Google Developer instructions link and explanations on Real Time Bidding:

https://developers.google.com/authorized-buyers/rtb/get-started/start

This is apparently the GPS data format in the OpenRTB data format:

GPS data within the OpenRTB protocol

• device.geo: This is the most common place to find location data.
  • device.geo.lat: The user's latitude.
  • device.geo.lon: The user's longitude.
  • device.geo.accuracy: The radius of the user's location uncertainty in meters.
  • device.geo.country: The user's country code.
  • device.geo.region: The user's region or state code.
  • device.geo.city: The user's city.
• site.publisher.id: In some cases, the publisher's ID may be associated with the location data.
• user.geo: Location data can also be associated with the user profile.
• imp (Impression): The imp object contains information about the ad impression, including the user's location. 

To exploit the location data, it would have to be matched with mapping data.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123963721#Comment_123963721

People are freely allowing apps to track where they are or what they are searching online. For a long time now I have stopped most apps on my phone for tracking my location and the ones that I allow to track my location are only allowed to do this when I am using the app. The apps that I allow to track my location is apps such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and Freenow, apps that I don't use all the time. The amount of idiots that allow Facebook to track where they are is unreal.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123968448#Comment_123968448

All the kids do it constantly with Snap maps (Snapchat). It's endemic within that demographic. The concept of sharing locations then carries into other apps as it's perceived as being beneficial.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123968448#Comment_123968448

The most effective mass survelllance system ever devised. And some of the reasons are because people have become addicted is the usefulness of the devices and some of these apps.Even more scary is some of the analysis that this data facilitates.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123968511#Comment_123968511

What scares me is the algorithms some of the apps have to keep you hooked. TikTok is a prime example of this. People should realise that once an app is free, its free for a reason, and they are going to bleed you dry of data.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123968531#Comment_123968531

There's a very good book, "Hooked: how to build habit forming products", that explains the techniques behind addictive apps and services.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123970040#Comment_123970040

I must look it up.