Mobile phone users movements are tracked and sold for profit ...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/04/mobile-phone-use...

Mobile phone users movements

are tracked and sold for profit
Hackers could steal users location data, finding out where you are, how you
got there and where you are going, say campaigners
Damien Gayle
Monday 4 April 2016 06.00BST

British mobile phone users are one data breach away from having the
routines of their daily lives revealed to criminals, privacy campaigners
have said.
Mobile phone networks and wireless hotspot operators are collecting
detailed information on customers movements that reveal intimate
details of their lives, two separate investigations into mobile data
retention have found.
Many people unwittingly sign up to be location-tracked 24/7, unaware
that the highly sensitive data this generates is being used and sold on
for prot. Campaigners say that if this information were stolen by
hackers, criminals could use it to target children as they leave school or
homes after occupants have gone out.
It is so detailed that it can reveal customers gender, sexual
orientation, religion and other many personal details that could
present serious risks of blackmail.
Eectively consumers are opting in to being location tracked by
default, said Geo Revill, the founder of Krowdthink, the privacy
campaign group behind one of the investigations published on
Monday.
The fact of the matter is your mobile service provider knows
without you knowing where you are, how you got there and can
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gure out where you are going.

Such precise location data would be like gold dust for criminals if it
found its way on to the black market, said Pete Woodward, the founder
of information security experts Securious.
The information that mobile and Wi-Fi service providers hold on
location tracking is an evolving and high-risk area of cybercrime that
needs urgent attention by the industry, Woodward said. Otherwise
we will face the frightening prospect that such highly sensitive data
could get into the hands of the likes of kidnappers and paedophiles.
Krowdthinks research found that 93% of UK citizens had opted in to
location tracking, giving mobile phone and wireless operators
unlimited access to their whereabouts 24 hours a day.
This data, the report says, brings the cloud into the crowd by
connecting web users digital lives with their physical lives, making it
one of the most intrusive forms of tracking.
Yet Krowdthinks research, and research conducted simultaneously
but independently by the Open Rights Group (ORG), found that
customers were not being given clear enough information about how
the data is used, or opportunities to opt out of collection.
Mystery shopping trips carried out by both groups found that mobile
and wireless service providers are not telling customers upfront that
all their movements will be tracked and used for marketing, and often
sold on to third parties.
All the mobile phone companies contacted by the ORG said they
anonymise data, which means they are not legally obliged to ask for
consent to use it. But the group, which campaigns for digital rights,
raised questions about the ecacy of anonymising such personal
information.
Often all it takes is the cross-referencing of one set of anonymised data
with another set of data, such as the electoral roll, to reveal the
identities of the people tracked. Jim Killock, the ORGs executive
director, said: Mobile service providers need to collect and keep data
so that they can bill us for our services.
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But just because they collect this data does not mean that they have
an automatic right to process that data for other purposes without our
consent. If they dont, they are removing our right to control this data
and the risks associated with their using it.
Britains mobile phone industry is worth 14bn, with 93% of adults
owning a mobile phone and 61% owning a smartphone. Data collected
from these phones, including usage, web browsing and location
histories, is used to build proles that are used by advertisers and
other undened businesses.
Location data is collected from the cell towers of a mobile service
provider when it tracks a customer to route a call to them. There are
now 52,000 cell towers in Britain. In some areas they are as close as 50
metres apart.
Wireless hotspots are also potential location trackers, with many
public providers opting customers into tracking by default in their
terms and conditions. In many cases these hotspots will log registered
customers location as they pass through, even if they do not sign in.
Krowdthinks investigation found that some providers, including O2
and Vodafone, use the same privacy policy for wireless as for their
mobile phone customers. The combination of the two networks
enables them to track location with even greater delity of location
tracking.
However, customers do have a legal right to opt out of location
tracking for marketing purposes and, with the forthcoming European
General Data Protection Regulation, will soon be able to demand that
their location data is deleted.
Krowdthink and the ORG warn mobile users to turn o wireless
internet when they are out to avoid disclosing their identities as they
pass through hotspots. They also warn people to be aware that they
could be providing information on their location when sharing digital
photos and video images and downloading mobile apps.
Killock added: Mobile phone companies should improve the
transparency of their operations by making their privacy polices
clearer, giving customers information about what exact data they are
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collecting, how long they will keep it for, how each particular type of
data will be used, who it will be shared with and the risks associated
with this.
They should also make contracts available before the point of sale and
marketing and location tracking opt-outs simpler.
More news

Topics
Surveillance Mobile phones Telecoms Data and computer security
Wi-Fi Privacy
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