It Takes Just $1000 to Track Someone's Location With Mobile Ads

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
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Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered you don't have to be a huge corporation to steal someone's privacy. They say for as little as $1000 an individual can exploit mobile advertising networks to find out where you live and work. It's probably a good time for all of us to reconsider using any apps that are advertising supported.

And in the meantime, for users who'd rather not become a target of that individualized ad-spying? Perhaps consider which ad-supported apps you use, when you use them, and what they reveal about you. It may be worthwhile to pay for the premium version of that gay hookup app, rather than allow it to be populated with ads that can potentially track your sexual preference and location. Every ad that you see on your smartphone, after all, can in some sense see you too and so can the unknown entity that paid for it.
 
I was just thinking about creating an app using Intels new Neural Net CPU.

It scavenges the Internet for any records of a person, public records, etc., and finds common links to gauge accuracy. Then, it monitors for any activity on any account or devices that are "online" and reachable. Are they on SnapChat? It will record all movement associated with it. Anything with public information (location services on?).

Pretty creepy how it's all out there, just needs something to compile it and present it.
 
It might be $1000 today, but it will only be $50 in 5 years. Only the extremes (rich or poor) will have any hope of any privacy soon as the rich will find a way and nobody is ever going to bother keeping track of the guy that can't afford anything being offered.
 
Still unsure why it's legal to stalk people for money.

EDIT: Upon further consideration I conclude it must be like getting paid to have sex. It's okay just as long as a business is the one paying.

EDIT EDIT: Upon further farther consideration I disagree with my initial reconsideration in that at least sex is consensual.
 
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Hell google tracks your GPS and sends data to you about your travel history and updates you with traffic reports.....i don't need traffic reports for work since i like in a more rural area. "Heavy" traffic on the road I drive to work everyday would be like 15 cars......they have a history of this pretty much every single day.
 
Hell google tracks your GPS and sends data to you about your travel history and updates you with traffic reports.....i don't need traffic reports for work since i like in a more rural area. "Heavy" traffic on the road I drive to work everyday would be like 15 cars......they have a history of this pretty much every single day.

Then turn it off.
 
Still unsure why it's legal to stalk people for money.

I think it comes down to intent. What are you intending to do with the information? Serve a summons, repo a car, fuck their brother? There are valid reasons, especially if he's a clean shaven twink.

I don't think it should be allowed, but with the way the internet and information flows freely, I think Pandora's Box has already been opened. People are giving their information away all willy nilly.

Now, I am thinking of another service - information fuzzing. Start editing and giving information about yourself that isn't true. Post internet information, edit information, etc. about yourself that is wrong - dates, locations, relatives names, etc... So, when someone does try looking you up, the information is all over the place and non-reliable. No use to the other person.
 
I don't think it should be allowed, but with the way the internet and information flows freely, I think Pandora's Box has already been opened. People are giving their information away all willy nilly.

They partially did it in Europe with the EU privacy legislation. IMHO that doesn't go far enough, but at least it shows that it can be done. It just requires people to get pissed off enough that it informs their voting in large enough numbers.

It could be the bipartisan issue of the century, except for a handful of politicians from California.
 
Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered you don't have to be a huge corporation to steal someone's privacy. They say for as little as $1000 an individual can exploit mobile advertising networks to find out where you live and work. It's probably a good time for all of us to reconsider using any apps that are advertising supported.

And in the meantime, for users who'd rather not become a target of that individualized ad-spying? Perhaps consider which ad-supported apps you use, when you use them, and what they reveal about you. It may be worthwhile to pay for the premium version of that gay hookup app, rather than allow it to be populated with ads that can potentially track your sexual preference and location. Every ad that you see on your smartphone, after all, can in some sense see you too and so can the unknown entity that paid for it.

Given that advertisement is built into the mobile OS, not sure this is really possible (though you should always have location disabled anyway). Maybe with Android one can build a custom rom or block advertising on home/work network but I doubt much can be done outside of this. Apple or Google will never remove this or allow it to be disabled, that's basically their source of cash.
 
Ghostery extension for chrome blocked 3 trackers on hardocp right now. ;) DoubleClick, Google Publisher Tags and Google Analytics.
 
Why use ads? you could just create a flashlight app or something simple like that which needs access to your GPS location and have it send that back to a server. How much it is to put an app in the store?
 
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