Cell Phone Data: Americans Are Leaving Their Homes More – IOTW Report

Cell Phone Data: Americans Are Leaving Their Homes More

They’re tracking 100 million people by their smartphones.

Did any of you ‘volunteer’ for this?

KFI: New data from researchers show that Americans are starting to venture out of their homes more for the first time since the stay-at-home orders were put in place in mid-March, despite experts still encouraging Americans to practice social distancing.

Lei Zhang, director of the Maryland Transportation Institute at the University of Maryland, and other researchers were able to find out about this by tracking smartphone date of more than 100 million people.

For the first six weeks of quarantine, the percentage of people who stayed home, meaning their phones moved less than a mile each day – stay the same.

One of the record high days of people staying home was Easter Sunday. However by April 14, a day before thousands protested quarantine measures at Michigan’s capitol, data suggested that people were starting to leave their homes. read more

21 Comments on Cell Phone Data: Americans Are Leaving Their Homes More

  1. Not only is my cell phone location tracker turned off, but I also leave it at home when I venture out. Because when I venture out to accomplish a task, that task doesn’t involve a stupid phone. What about an “emergency?” You mean the thing that never happens? If it does arise, there’s several phones within arms reach from all the other goofs that tote them around.

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  2. If you’re surprised that the government has been tracking you with your cell phone’s gps functions, you haven’t been paying attention. They’re also listening if they want to (the mic on you phone is never turned off) and reading you’re texts and emails if they want to. That’s what the “NSA database” (that was so totally and illegally abused by the Obama administration’s Trump campaign spying operations) is all about. It’s anti-American, but since the Orwellian named Patriot Act was passed (and continually renewed) that is the America we live in, comrades.

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  3. “Not only is my cell phone location tracker turned off, but I also leave it at home when I venture out. ”

    Leaving it at home is the smart thing to do, but don;t think that turning that tracker off will actually make it not be tracked (Actually, it might be a little like sending encrypted documents over the internet, it increases the desire to find out what’s in them by those that keep track of them).

    But go one better when you go somewhere you don’t want to be tracked, let someone else (your dog maybe?) be the one carrying it so it looks like you are somewhere else than where really are.

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  4. You implicitly and explicitly consent in many ways when using phones. For example, one of the core functionalities of the map apps (g-maps, Waze, etc.) Involves sending your exact route to a server. This data is stored for “providing a service” and “product improvement”.

    Some, like Google, give the illusion of control over that data, but it never really is deleted. It’s supposed to be anonymous, but any such data can be related to a sim card fairly easily.

    Moral of the story: free is not free. If you take the convenience, you surrender a measure of control over an aspect of your life and privacy. It really is amazing just how much data can be processed and analyzed on modern systems.

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  5. Before I go out to slit the throat of people I can’t stand any more I always attach my cell phone to the neighbors’ dog or their child’s bicycle.

    It’s an amazing thing. After the Berlin wall fell people were appalled and angry at the meticulous detailed records kept by the Stasi on the residents’ every activity. Recording their every move with date and time, what they purchased (buy a pack of gum, it got recorded) , who they met, how often they met, etc.

    Jump forward to today and people voluntarily provide that information by carrying their cell phones or uploading selfies on “social media”.

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  6. “Last week (Sept 11, 2015), the state of cellphone tracking became slightly more confusing. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that, except in emergency situations, federal agents would now seek warrants before using “Stingrays.” Stingrays are devices that mimic cellphone towers and can pinpoint a phone’s physical location or record which number they’re calling…How many different ways can the government surveil cellphones? What can each method do? Here’s a primer…..These new rules, however, don’t apply to state or local law enforcement. That’s a big deal.. ”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/how-the-government-surveils-cell-phones-a-primer/404818/ .

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  7. ” … federal agents would now seek warrants before using “Stingrays.” ….

    And, of course, they would never ever ever use local and State police, or even private organizations, to use the stingrays for them without obtaining a warrant.

    No way would they ever do that.

    I tend to disbelieve anything i hear about that would restrict police power lately, maybe I’m just getting paranoid or something.

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