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Telcos Waking Up To the Value of Your Location
holy_calamity writes "Cell phone networks represent probably the most effective data collectors of all time: almost everyone's movements and communications are logged in some way by these firms thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones. Now they're beginning to wake up to the value of that data, as researchers mine call records to study travel and social patterns at previously unimaginable scales. Not surprisingly, some are thinking about how to monetize that data, too."
My guess is they sell this data to the corrupt motherfuckers who are running our country so they know exactly where any miscreants are as soon as the do something remotely questionable! Bastards! Wait . . . there's someone at the door . . . I'll be right b
Target 1133863 has been eliminated for non-compliance.
Tell that to the Credit Reporting Bureaus that use your data to make money. My money says Telco will simply see this as gravy, and not pass along any of the financial benefit to the customer.
If you care at all about your privacy, buy prepaid with cash. They don't have any way to tie you to the specific phone that way.
Otherwise, if you give them all your data, don't be surprised when they use it for all kinds of things you didn't imagine.
Most people seem to take the philosophy of, "I'll just ask nicely and maybe they won't go all big brother on me". Me, I try to push towards the philosophy of, "Let's not give them this in the first place. Then there's no issue because it *cannot* be a problem".
Not just for this but other things too. I admit it requires a few sacrifices, but really much less than you might think. Mostly what it requires is *thinking*.
I guess it's a good thing I don't have a cell phone. No cell phone, no tracking. No tracking, no data mining.
About the best the marketers know about me is from my grocery shopping card, though what they glean from my buying a 5 lb. tub of Crisco, two 48-count packs of condoms, three baby bottles and the 5 lb. jar of grape jelly every two weeks is up to them.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
They can sell information on everyone you called, use speech recognition to monetize the content of your calls. And since you voluntarily brought a phone into your life, why turn off the microphone just because you aren't making a call? Just continuously record everything in the vicinity - there must be a wealth of data there that someone would pay for.
If data-mining of everything that touches the service works for facebook, why not telcos?
I was preaching to them about Jesus! Honest!
Ha, they better be tracking by the minute if they want to catch me that way!
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.