Location, Location, Location
Most of us carry smartphones and rely on location-based apps to help us get through our day. Navigation apps help us find the best route through traffic, and search engines help us find “Restaurants near me”. However, a recent New York Times article explores the issues surrounding location services in detail. Specifically, few of us realize how closely our location is tracked by the various apps on our mobile devices, and what the consequences of that surveillance could be.
The Times reviewed a data set containing 235 million locations, captured from 1.2 million devices over a three day period. That means that on average each device was located over 195 per day, or about once every seven minutes. That information is bought and sold among aggregation services and to advertisers. While aggregation services say that the data is anonymous and the names of individuals are not revealed or tracked, the Times was able to identify individuals by noting that there’s probably only one person who lives at location A, drops their child at school B, and then goes to work at office C, all of which can be determined from social media and various other online sources. The good news is that advertisers can serve you with useful information, such as alerting you to a special at your favorite coffee shop as you pass. The challenge is that the same technology allows analysts or scammers to potentially figure out political or social affiliations, medical conditions, or other personal information.
So what can you do about it? Not a lot. The terms and conditions you accept in order to use almost every app on your phone (and the operating system of the phone itself) says that the vendor can use location information gleaned from your phone. However, if the app offers this option, make sure you’re only sharing location information when the app is in use and shut off apps that you don’t need. Here’s an article on our Cybersafe website about how to manage app permissions. Finally, conduct yourself as if almost everything you do is under surveillance to some degree, because if you’re carrying your cell phone, it is.
See you in 2019!
About Cybersafe
The Division of Information Technology is dedicated to informing the community of the latest cybersecurity threats. Visit fitnyc.edu/cybersafe and stay tuned for emails from [email protected] for the latest from the Cybersafe campaign at FIT.
-Walter Kerner
Assistant Vice-President and Chief Information Security Officer