1 00:00:04,519 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: Your cell phone location in seconds. What's going on? I'm 2 00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:10,840 Speaker 1: rich Demiro, this is rich on Tech Daily. Well, we 3 00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: know our cell phones have GPS inside, but just how 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: easy is it for someone to tap into that information? Well, 5 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:19,800 Speaker 1: it took a random website all of two point seven 6 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:23,159 Speaker 1: seconds to pinpoint pretty much exactly where my phone was. 7 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:26,040 Speaker 1: Let me explain. This all started with the New York 8 00:00:26,079 --> 00:00:29,319 Speaker 1: Times article about a service called securis. This is meant 9 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: to track inmates locations, but it turns out the service 10 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: can be used to track anyone. The article was about 11 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,560 Speaker 1: an officer who used the service to basically bypass search 12 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 1: warrants to find where people were anyway, but it puts 13 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 1: some light on a bigger topic. All four of the 14 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: big cell phone companies, including AT and T, T Mobile, Sprint, 15 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:51,360 Speaker 1: and Verizon are selling customers real time location data to 16 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: third party companies. Let me explain. One of those companies 17 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 1: is Carlsbad based Location Smart. Now, they're not doing anything wrong, 18 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: but here's how they work. They operate a service that's 19 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: mainly meant for marketers, and it can pretty much pinpoint 20 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,400 Speaker 1: the location of any cell phone in America in seconds. 21 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:09,680 Speaker 1: And you can see how fast it works. They even 22 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:11,959 Speaker 1: have a section of their website where you can try 23 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: out a demo. It's at LocationSmart dot com slash try 24 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: and I have a feeling this might not be up 25 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: for much longer as more people learn about this. But 26 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: all I did was pop in my cell phone number 27 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 1: and replied yes to a confirmation text, and then almost instantly, 28 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,560 Speaker 1: a map of my phone's location showed up on screen 29 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 1: in what they said was two point seven seconds. Yeah, 30 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 1: that's also listed on the screen. There was also my 31 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: latitude and longitude accuracy information, so for mine it was 32 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: to nine hundred and six feet, which is pretty darn close. 33 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: They also had the name of my wireless carrier and 34 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:50,320 Speaker 1: the businesses nearby. Now the businesses nearby is important because 35 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: this service is meant as a way to track people, 36 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,880 Speaker 1: not for nefarious reasons, but for marketers to see where 37 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: people went with their phones. But you can imagine this 38 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: can be used in various way ways. Now the website 39 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: zd net talk to someone from the New America Open 40 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: Technology Institute and they explain what's going on here. Wireless 41 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: carriers can't hand over our real time data directly to 42 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: the government, but there's nothing stopping them from acquiring this 43 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,639 Speaker 1: data from third party companies that sell it. So back 44 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: to that website, you might be thinking, well, rich, didn't 45 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: you say yes to a text message that asked for 46 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: your consent? I did. But there are other ways you 47 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: can consent to giving up your location data as well, 48 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,120 Speaker 1: and Location smart says it can release your data based 49 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: on one time, persistent or what they call implied consent. 50 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:38,399 Speaker 1: And again they're not doing anything wrong, but you can 51 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: see how it's kind of odd that our information is 52 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: so out there. In fact, a service like theirs can 53 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: be quite useful if you're a stranded motorist and you 54 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: want your roadside assistance app to be able to pinpoint 55 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,079 Speaker 1: you in those same two point seven seconds. That's really 56 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 1: what this service is aimed at. But again, it's just 57 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: one more way we're sort of all in the dark 58 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: about this highly personal data about us being sold to 59 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,400 Speaker 1: the highest bidder, and the fact that it's the wireless 60 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 1: companies doing this makes it even scarier. It's one more 61 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: reason to be weary about any apps or services that 62 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,799 Speaker 1: ask for access to your location unless it's specifically necessary, 63 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: like a maps app. At the end of the day, 64 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 1: many of us, myself included. Find it a bit surprising 65 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 1: that while we pay our wireless carriers for our service, 66 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: they go around and sell our most private data in 67 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: a pretty big way. All right, If you want to 68 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: link to this website, you can go to mine. Just 69 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,800 Speaker 1: go to richon tech dot tv and as always, thanks 70 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: so much for listening. If you could, I'd love a 71 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: rating and review in the Apple Podcasts app. If you 72 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: enjoy listening to the rich on Tech Daily podcast, I'm 73 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,000 Speaker 1: Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.