WEBVTT - Your Cell Phone Location Data Sold to the Highest Bidder

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<v Speaker 1>Your cell phone location in seconds. What's going on? I'm

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<v Speaker 1>rich Demiro, this is rich on Tech Daily. Well, we

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<v Speaker 1>know our cell phones have GPS inside, but just how

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<v Speaker 1>easy is it for someone to tap into that information? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>it took a random website all of two point seven

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<v Speaker 1>seconds to pinpoint pretty much exactly where my phone was.

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<v Speaker 1>Let me explain. This all started with the New York

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<v Speaker 1>Times article about a service called securis. This is meant

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<v Speaker 1>to track inmates locations, but it turns out the service

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<v Speaker 1>can be used to track anyone. The article was about

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<v Speaker 1>an officer who used the service to basically bypass search

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<v Speaker 1>warrants to find where people were anyway, but it puts

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<v Speaker 1>some light on a bigger topic. All four of the

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<v Speaker 1>big cell phone companies, including AT and T, T Mobile, Sprint,

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<v Speaker 1>and Verizon are selling customers real time location data to

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<v Speaker 1>third party companies. Let me explain. One of those companies

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<v Speaker 1>is Carlsbad based Location Smart. Now, they're not doing anything wrong,

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<v Speaker 1>but here's how they work. They operate a service that's

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<v Speaker 1>mainly meant for marketers, and it can pretty much pinpoint

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<v Speaker 1>the location of any cell phone in America in seconds.

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<v Speaker 1>And you can see how fast it works. They even

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<v Speaker 1>have a section of their website where you can try

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<v Speaker 1>out a demo. It's at LocationSmart dot com slash try

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<v Speaker 1>and I have a feeling this might not be up

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<v Speaker 1>for much longer as more people learn about this. But

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<v Speaker 1>all I did was pop in my cell phone number

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<v Speaker 1>and replied yes to a confirmation text, and then almost instantly,

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<v Speaker 1>a map of my phone's location showed up on screen

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<v Speaker 1>in what they said was two point seven seconds. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>that's also listed on the screen. There was also my

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<v Speaker 1>latitude and longitude accuracy information, so for mine it was

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<v Speaker 1>to nine hundred and six feet, which is pretty darn close.

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<v Speaker 1>They also had the name of my wireless carrier and

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<v Speaker 1>the businesses nearby. Now the businesses nearby is important because

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<v Speaker 1>this service is meant as a way to track people,

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<v Speaker 1>not for nefarious reasons, but for marketers to see where

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<v Speaker 1>people went with their phones. But you can imagine this

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<v Speaker 1>can be used in various way ways. Now the website

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<v Speaker 1>zd net talk to someone from the New America Open

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<v Speaker 1>Technology Institute and they explain what's going on here. Wireless

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<v Speaker 1>carriers can't hand over our real time data directly to

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<v Speaker 1>the government, but there's nothing stopping them from acquiring this

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<v Speaker 1>data from third party companies that sell it. So back

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<v Speaker 1>to that website, you might be thinking, well, rich, didn't

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<v Speaker 1>you say yes to a text message that asked for

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<v Speaker 1>your consent? I did. But there are other ways you

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<v Speaker 1>can consent to giving up your location data as well,

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<v Speaker 1>and Location smart says it can release your data based

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<v Speaker 1>on one time, persistent or what they call implied consent.

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<v Speaker 1>And again they're not doing anything wrong, but you can

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<v Speaker 1>see how it's kind of odd that our information is

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<v Speaker 1>so out there. In fact, a service like theirs can

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<v Speaker 1>be quite useful if you're a stranded motorist and you

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<v Speaker 1>want your roadside assistance app to be able to pinpoint

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<v Speaker 1>you in those same two point seven seconds. That's really

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<v Speaker 1>what this service is aimed at. But again, it's just

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<v Speaker 1>one more way we're sort of all in the dark

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<v Speaker 1>about this highly personal data about us being sold to

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<v Speaker 1>the highest bidder, and the fact that it's the wireless

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<v Speaker 1>companies doing this makes it even scarier. It's one more

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<v Speaker 1>reason to be weary about any apps or services that

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<v Speaker 1>ask for access to your location unless it's specifically necessary,

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<v Speaker 1>like a maps app. At the end of the day,

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<v Speaker 1>many of us, myself included. Find it a bit surprising

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<v Speaker 1>that while we pay our wireless carriers for our service,

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<v Speaker 1>they go around and sell our most private data in

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<v Speaker 1>a pretty big way. All right, If you want to

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<v Speaker 1>link to this website, you can go to mine. Just

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<v Speaker 1>go to richon tech dot tv and as always, thanks

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<v Speaker 1>so much for listening. If you could, I'd love a

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<v Speaker 1>rating and review in the Apple Podcasts app. If you

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<v Speaker 1>enjoy listening to the rich on Tech Daily podcast, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.