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The Norwegian public broadcaster purchased data on the movements of 140,000 phones and tablets over the whole year 2019 from Tamoco, a UK data broker.

They were able to trace the lives of individuals, including how 8300 people moved around in hospitals.

Important investigation:
Articles (in Norwegian):
nrk.no/norge/xl/avslo…
nrk.no/norge/mobilspo…

The Norwegian data protection authority started an investigation:


This is just the tip of the iceberg. Statement by the Norwegian Consumer Council:
forbrukerradet.no/side/asking-co…
As detailed in our report from January, we observed several data companies receiving detailed GPS location info from mobile apps.

Today, the Norwegian Consumer Council sent letters to some of them & considers filing GDPR complaints based on the responses: forbrukerradet.no/side/asking-co…
Also today, NOYB filed a GDPR complaint against Google for tracking users through the 'Android Advertising ID' without a valid legal basis.

This ID is the most important basis for all kinds of shady profiling and data harvesting from mobile apps.

Huge:
"The present complaint is filed against Google LLC ... According to § 24 Austrian Data Protection Act 2018, the Complainant alleges the violation of several provisions including but not limited to Articles 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21 and 25 of the GDPR"
noyb.eu/sites/default/…
Tamoco, the location data broker, explains on the website that it helps app developers to 'monetize' user data.

The company says it's 'trusted' by app publishers such as Vouchercloud, Ulmon, Pixlr, Perfect, JNJmobile, intelligent, DiDi Labs and CyberLink.
tamoco.com/solutions-app-…
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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
I see four main types of potential issues with proximity tracing apps:

1) Opaque/centralized mass profiling

2) Insufficient epidemiological/practical efficacy

3) Everything related to how governments implement them, e.g. making them (de-facto) compulsory

4) Mission creep
The Google/Apple approach *may* largely prevent (1) by governments.

G/A probably have still access to some data. They must amend their ToS with legally binding statements that STRICTLY prohibit them from exploiting any of it. In this case, (1) is perhaps largely resolved.
The other issues are challenging enough.
Read 10 tweets
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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
Location data secretly gathered from smartphone apps is potentially flawed, biased, untrustworthy or even fraudulent.

Overview of data harvesting companies who claim to help fighting the virus by providing data on the movements of millions #covidwashing

Ongoing thread:
Cuebiq, data on Italian smartphone users:
Unacast, data on US smartphone users:
Read 9 tweets
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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
The most shady data harvesting companies, who are secretly gathering location data from smartphones and apps without the users' knowledge, are covidwashing their products and exploiting the disaster.
According to @geoffreyfowler, Unacast's CEO said 'all of the apps that Unacast acquires location data from must let users know. But he declined to name any of the apps'.

How reliable is the data? How biased? We have no idea. He doesn't even name the data sources. Irresponsible.
Certain kinds of aggregate analytics based on consumer data that is being gathered secretly or illegally *may* be appropriate right now, in case of emergency.

But: full transparency, public governance, strong legal safeguards, firms must be held accountable for other data uses.
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