Re:Tim Hortons app violated laws in collection of ‘vast amou...
by jonhohle on Wednesday June 01, 2022 @06:53PM
(#31589178)
The parent posted a NYT article about cell phone data being used to inferring an individual activity based on their location. Recently, the NYT is implying that the data isn’t really all that accurate and can’t be used to infer an individuals activity.
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Re:Tim Hortons app violated laws in collection of ‘vast amou...
by roywiggins on Wednesday June 01, 2022 @09:21PM
(#31590216)
The data is probably just phone self-reported GPS coordinates, and we know how accurate or inaccurate those can be: https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/#how-ac...
Both are articles are perfectly consistent with being able to locate a person to within at best a 16 feet radius or so, and less accurate when in a built-up area. Hence the quote about not being able to reliably tell which side of the road someone's phone pinged on.
Re:Tim Hortons app violated laws in collection of ‘vast amou...
by jonhohle on Wednesday June 01, 2022 @10:19PM
(#31590545)
It’s also the same data used by police to identify devices (and by extension their owners) that were near the scene of a crime. Phones don’t use “just” GPS for calculating position.
My point is one article uses the information to (rightfully) strike fear/discomfort in the reader. The other article uses it to dismiss an investigation that is inconsistent with the paper’s narrative.