lyft driver app can detect fake app location on my phone

“This information could help officials understand changes in essential trips that can then shape recommendations on business hours or inform delivery service offerings,” Freund said. Leigh Freund, the president of the Network Advertising Initiative, highlighted this effort in a statement at the Senate commerce committee hearing. The group also says it doesn’t share raw data with governments, third parties or the public. The group says it has direct connections with departments of health at the city, state and country level, and provides aggregated data to get reports on people’s movements and how well social distancing interventions are working. The COVID-19 Mobility Data Network gathers information provided by Facebook and Cuebiq, a mobile advertising company that says its data is accurate to 30 feet and that tracks up to 15 million people in the US every day. Some advertising companies are working together to provide location data to researchers, noting they can help direct government decisions and policies surrounding COVID-19.

“There is a danger that we allow these companies to validate these activities and to whitewash their reputation by repurposing their data for COVID-19.”Ĭuebiq’s dataset tracks up to 15 million people in the US every day. “This is an essentially corrupt ecosystem of companies spying on people without any meaningful understanding or meaningful consent,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union. Privacy advocates and lawmakers in the past have called out location data brokers for how they gather and give away people’s information, and the flaws haven’t disappeared just because the data could be used for a public good, advocates say. That same data is now being used to track the COVID-19 outbreak. Unless you’re analyzing every app you’re using, it’s hard to figure out which apps are sending your location to advertisers. Several mobile advertising companies that are looking to help halt the spread of COVID-19 have now published their own dashboards and aggregated data sets, collected from millions of people, many of whom don’t know they’re being tracked by their apps or what the data is being used for.įor years, location data brokers and advertisers have acquired information by paying to put trackers in popular apps like weather services or cheap gas finders.

“To maximize these benefits, however, privacy risks to consumers will need to be minimized.” Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in an opening statement at a hearing on Big Data and the coronavirus on Thursday. “The potential benefits of big data to help contain the virus and limit future outbreaks could be significant,” Sen.

Lyft driver app can detect fake app location on my phone