Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demographics of protesters

Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by supahfly_remix on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:43AM (#23652499)

The reports showed ethnicity of the protestors. Is this inferred from ad preferences? Or, is there a database that keeps this?

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by jleach82 on Friday June 26, 2020 @11:00AM (#23652702)

It comes from many different places and is cross-correlated at many levels. From credit card purchase history to social media to phone location data, across multiple agents and brokers throughout the data market. See: Data Breaches, Crisis and Opportunity (ISBN 978-0-13-450678-4)

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by supahfly_remix on Friday June 26, 2020 @01:02PM (#23654230)

Thank you for the reference. I will look for it.

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by agakshat on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:49AM (#23652579)

The report mentions ethnicity is inferred from browsing history, which they are also able to purchase from data brokers.

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by akerro on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:47AM (#23652563)

It's US so mobile providers, ISP very likely have such data from being voluntary provided by customers.

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by jtbayly on Friday June 26, 2020 @11:20AM (#23652971)

Are you implying that US ISP's ask the race of their customers? I've never been asked by AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, Spectrum, or other ISPs I've used.

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by ryandrake on Friday June 26, 2020 @01:34PM (#23654604)

I'm not in the business but I'd guess that an ISP can determine with pretty high confidence your race, ethnicity, gender, approximate age and approximate income simply by analyzing your DNS requests. And they probably have a lot more data than DNS.

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by jtbayly on Friday June 26, 2020 @01:58PM (#23654945)

Agreed, but I wouldn't describe that as "being voluntary provided by customers."

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