To extract the complete location information for a single person from an “anonymized” data set of more than a million people, all you would need to do is place him or her within a couple of hundred yards of a cellphone transmitter, sometime over the course of an hour, four times in one year.
A new formula that characterizes the privacy afforded by large, aggregate data sets may be discouraging, but could help sharpen policy discussion.
The proliferation of sensor-studded cellphones could lead to a wealth of data with socially useful applications — in urban planning, epidemiology, operations research and emergency preparedness, among other things. Of course, before being released to researchers, the data would have to be stripped of identifying information. But how hard could it be to protect the identity of one unnamed cellphone user in a data set of hundreds of thousands or even millions?
According to a paper appearing this week in Scientific Reports, harder than you might think. Researchers at MIT and the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, analyzed data on 1.5 million cellphone users in a small European country over a span of 15 months and found that just four points of reference, with fairly low spatial and temporal resolution, was enough to uniquely identify 95 percent of them.
In other words, to extract the complete location information for a single person from an “anonymized” data set of more than a million people, all you would need to do is place him or her within a couple of hundred yards of a cellphone transmitter, sometime over the course of an hour, four times in one year. A few Twitter posts would probably provide all the information you needed, if they contained specific information about the person’s whereabouts.
The Latest Bing News on:
Mobile phone tracking
- 12 Ways Your Smartphone Might Be Tracking Youon April 27, 2024 at 6:30 am
Most of us have smartphones nowadays, and though convenient, there are some privacy concerns. Here are 12 ways your smartphone might be tracking you ...
- Iowa weather: Tracking the potential for more severe weather Saturdayon April 27, 2024 at 5:31 am
The Storm Prediction Center has listed at least 100 tornado reports across multiple states through early Saturday morning along with numerous large hail and wind reports, and the severe weather threat ...
- New AirPods Point to a Hearing Aid Mode, Even More Health Trackingon April 27, 2024 at 5:00 am
I take a look at all the rumors about the upcoming AirPods, including a potential hearing aid mode that may launch with iOS 18. In the future, maybe AirPods could integrate even more sensors such as ...
- Iowa weather: Recapping the tornadoes and other severe storms Fridayon April 26, 2024 at 10:00 pm
Iowa is in an active stretch of weather that could result in severe storms every day through Sunday. A tornado warning for portions of Pottawattamie and Harrison counties through 4:30 p.m. has changed ...
- Despite the weather, the 44th annual Trojan Track meet made it to the finish lineon April 26, 2024 at 7:33 pm
The 44th annual Trojan Track and field meet took place today at West Ridge High School. In the boys 400 meters, Daniel Boone’s Evan Tomlinson held off Hunter ...
- Patient-Reported Symptoms via Mobile App May Help Expedite GVHD Identification, Treatmenton April 26, 2024 at 2:01 pm
A feasibility study on the use of a mobile application for patients after undergoing a stem cell transplant may help care teams quickly identify and treat graft-versus-host disease.
- USA Track & Field expands its maternity policyon April 26, 2024 at 10:55 am
U.S. Olympic hurdler Christina Clemons sent numerous emails to those in the track community raising concerns over a gap in health care insurance coverage for new mothers who still wanted to compete.
- Track Your FAFSA: Where's It At?on April 26, 2024 at 10:31 am
Learn how to track your FAFSA application status online, by phone, or via email. Get answers on processing times and next steps.
- Scientists suggest using mobile device location data for studying human-wildlife interactionson April 26, 2024 at 8:00 am
When did you last go anywhere without your cell phone? From maps and weather apps to social media platforms, we give consent for our phones to trace our footsteps and behavior. These curated mobility ...
- Solana’s Chapter 2 Mobile Airdrops Temporarily Exceed Pre-Order Coston April 26, 2024 at 7:20 am
The phone was rolled out this year in January after the first Solana-based mobile device Saga sold out in the United States and Europe. However, unlike the Saga phone, which had a slow demand in the ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Mobile phone tracking
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Mobile phone tracking” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”] [/vc_column_text]The Latest Bing News on:
De-anonymize data
- This Remote Work Tool Hopes Bosses Will Share Their Office Data—In Return For Moreon April 11, 2024 at 6:00 am
“We want to be careful, and I don't want to de-anonymize any of the data,” he says. “Giving specific numbers of companies, I think, bears a little bit of risk,” he says, while office ...
- Google is finally deleting your Incognito mode browsing history — well, some of iton April 2, 2024 at 12:13 pm
When you open Google Chrome Incognito mode, you're probably expecting a completely private browsing experience where your history and searches won't be saved. It turns out, that's not how Google ...
- Google to delete or anonymize billions of data points to settle Chrome lawsuiton April 1, 2024 at 1:11 pm
Google LLC will delete or anonymize millions of data points collected about users to settle a class-action lawsuit filed over Chrome’s Incognito mode. The plan was detailed in court documents ...
- Google agrees to destroy browsing data collected in Incognito modeon April 1, 2024 at 10:33 am
Google agreed to destroy or de-identify billions of records of web browsing data collected when users were in its private browsing “Incognito mode,” according to a proposed class action ...
- Executive Order Restricts Foreign Access to U.S. Data, Citing National Security Riskson March 31, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Personal Health Data: In large data sets, countries of concern may be able to re-identify or de-anonymize health data that reveals exploitable private health information and human genomic data of ...
- Data protection informationon April 18, 2023 at 3:01 am
In addition to the central website www.mpg.de, it is also used by most Max ... This data is stored separately from the rest of the data and cannot be linked to specific websites or other things. We ...
- Why Celsius Exposed User Information And What You Can Do About Iton October 7, 2022 at 5:00 pm
The document notes specifically the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (U.K. GDPR ... When it comes to the on-chain addresses that observers can de-anonymize by looking at the ...
- Data privacy and anonymization for PostgreSQLon March 16, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Another consideration is how you anonymize the data. There are several different techniques available, each with its own benefits: Anonymization is a key tool in trying to protect data privacy.
- Surgeon Scorecardon March 20, 2019 at 12:52 pm
You will not use this data, alone or in combination with any other data, to de-anonymize patients or to determine the actual count of complications or procedures in cases where they've been redacted.
- Data Privacy Lawsuits Rise as Lawyers Dust Off Wiretapping Lawson December 31, 2000 at 4:00 pm
Mintz attorneys analyze a trend in data privacy litigation, saying businesses’ use of chatbots and pixel tracking are among the issues driving the lawsuits.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
De-anonymize data
[google_news title=”” keyword=”de-anonymize data” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
