Quote:In what appears to be a first, a public figure has been ousted after de-anonymized mobile phone location data was publicly reported, revealing sensitive and previously private details about his life.

Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill was general secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (UCCB), effectively the highest-ranking priest in the US who is not a bishop, before records of Grindr usage obtained from data brokers was correlated with his apartment, place of work, vacation home, family members' addresses, and more. Grindr is a gay hookup app, and while apparently none of Burrill’s actions were illegal, any sort of sexual relationship is forbidden for clergy in the Catholic Church.

Burrill’s case is “hugely significant,” Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Information Privacy Center, told Ars. “It’s a clear and prominent example of the exact problem that folks in my world, privacy advocates and experts, have been screaming from the rooftops for years, which is that uniquely identifiable data is not anonymous.”

[...]

The data that resulted in Burrill’s ouster was reportedly obtained through legal means. Mobile carriers sold—and still sell—location data to brokers who aggregate it and sell it to a range of buyers, including advertisers, law enforcement, roadside services, and even bounty hunters. Carriers were caught in 2018 selling real-time location data to brokers, drawing the ire of Congress. But after carriers issued public mea culpas and promises to reform the practice, investigations have revealed that phone location data is still popping up in places it shouldn’t. This year, T-Mobile even broadened its offerings, selling customers' web and app usage data to third parties unless people opt out.

(07-21-2021, 06:34 PM)d4ggm4sk Wrote: if you send nudes on grindr, does grindr have the right to sell and distribute those as they wish too?

(07-22-2021, 02:32 PM)demonboy Wrote: This is really interesting. It raises the question is our data truly anonymous and encrypted? It’s funny as fuck that ol’ boy got caught not practicing what he preached. But its a huge concern for privacy and data. What if a private firm decided to buy all of our personal data and used it against us? Pretty scary when you think about it

(07-23-2021, 07:51 AM)Boudica Wrote:

(07-22-2021, 02:32 PM)demonboy Wrote: This is really interesting. It raises the question is our data truly anonymous and encrypted? It’s funny as fuck that ol’ boy got caught not practicing what he preached. But its a huge concern for privacy and data. What if a private firm decided to buy all of our personal data and used it against us? Pretty scary when you think about it

Realistically, this already happens. However, it's used to manipulate people via advertising at the moment.

(07-22-2021, 02:33 PM)Dismas Wrote:

(07-21-2021, 06:34 PM)d4ggm4sk Wrote: if you send nudes on grindr, does grindr have the right to sell and distribute those as they wish too?

Some of the kinkier people might enjoy an arrangement like that.

(07-23-2021, 03:03 PM)demonboy Wrote:

(07-23-2021, 07:51 AM)Boudica Wrote:

(07-22-2021, 02:32 PM)demonboy Wrote: This is really interesting. It raises the question is our data truly anonymous and encrypted? It’s funny as fuck that ol’ boy got caught not practicing what he preached. But its a huge concern for privacy and data. What if a private firm decided to buy all of our personal data and used it against us? Pretty scary when you think about it

Realistically, this already happens. However, it's used to manipulate people via advertising at the moment.

Its being “disguised” as advertising when really our data is worth much more then what they make it out to be. Imagine if they threw all of personalized data, keystrokes, reaction times, etc. towards an AI that learns all of this