These days it looks like every other mobile app asks you to share your location so that you may be offered better and seamless results about what you are looking for or experiencing. And why not! You have indeed installed a new app on your mobile device to make the best use of it.
Many of the apps send you location sharing requests so that you may get refined results that would be useful for you. We understand that it couldn’t get any better than switching your car navigation system on and using apps like maps and searching for a coffee house nearby on a cold day.
However, the question is if sharing your data and location is as safe as it looks like or not.
We often hear that many of the companies share and sell this information about consumers to third-party vendors and violate the consumers’ privacies.
We should not forget that it’s not merely a technology driven world that we live in but it is more specifically a data-driven environment companies are hunting for data that helps them know more about their potential consumers and target them for promotions.
A case that made headlines in 2012 pointed out how law enforcement agencies are also making use of this data to track people. This case also brings us to the conclusion that when we choose to be tracked on various apps, we are unintentionally agreeing to all the hidden terms and conditions of being scrutinized.
However, it looks like there is no other solution to the scenario and we can’t just turn our devices off or throw them away.
In 2014 reports on a related subject were shared at the Government Accountability Office, which noted that locations of users can be identified easily using various methods including, cell tower signal-based technologies, GPS systems, Wifi internet access points and crowdsourcing.
These are the most common techniques through which companies get locations or data of their users. Once users allow the app to identify their location for service asked, through these towers these locations are shared with companies that later sell to the vendors.
Moreover, the GOA also noted that selling these data does not merely mean sharing users’ locations randomly but in a broader perspective, it also connotes that the users’ behavior and actions are tracked, their identities are at risk of being stolen and their future activities are carefully monitored. Doesn’t that sound creepy? It surely does!
We certainly do not want to be stalked by people and companies unknown to us and not via proximity or high accuracy. It’s like digging deep into our privacy. Nevertheless, when we allow apps to use our locations, we are agreeing to share our information with them.
But the only problem is, we are not aware of how that is used in the future. It is equally possible that the third-party to whom your data has been sold has a weak security system and thus, your private information can be compromised. It can lead to a bigger threat; one that wasn’t previously imagined.
Let’s analyze the variety of location-based shared data and their risks:
1. Tracking of behaviors and actions
One thing that you should be sure of is the vulnerability to get a lot of promotions and marketing that you don’t want. Once advertisers start tracking your location, they will soon have a rich data set that will include all your activities or wherever you have traveled since we all usually keep our mobile phones with us constantly.
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2. Stealing identities
This is a serious threat and as damaging as it can get. Since our data is now combined with a set of personal information, these can easily be used by criminals. By the set of data, we mean your name, address, your workplace, your family, your friends or your work colleagues, your places to visit, etc. This can be carefully analyzed by an identity thief to easily make the same kind of profile for someone else.
Your profile, with all these elements, can be lost to someone else. With increased sharing, you become a very vulnerable entity. This all is just because of the third-party’s weak security protection system and it can’t get any creepier than this.
3. Constant monitoring and surveillance
The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a report stating that law enforcement representatives have full rights to track people who may be in the vicinity of a crime or mishap and track their activities.
The kind of sensitive place you visit; which might mean hospitals, political rallies, religious places or even trade meetings may get you in trouble in a criminal and sensitive matter even with zero involvement.
Moreover, ACLU has shared an extensive report titled You Are Being Tracked and it focuses on how we are tracked even with our license plates and nothing that we do on a regular basis is private and confidential anymore.
4. Personal sensitive information
The data-driven profile is so rich in its content that all your movements are monitored, which happens to reveal your future movements and patterns too. This may further be used to harm you, your loved ones or your property.
It is noted by the ACLU that this technology has assisted large scale robberies. They also observed that children are more prone to data-driven crimes as their usage of mobile phones and such apps are higher.
Conclusion
With technology that we make use of on a daily basis, it is always best to be aware of the associated pros and cons. If you need to share your location with others, it is also a good idea to choose ‘privacy sensitive’ applications like Turtler which focuses on zero private location data sharing with third parties.
Just like a physical product that we buy from a superstore, you tend to look through its contents, in the same way we need to be vigilant we need to be better informed of the services we are using in the digital space.
