Phone location data of top EU officials for sale, report finds | TechCrunch

"A coalition of reporters obtained the dataset, offered as a free sample from a data broker, containing 278 million location data points from the phones of millions of people around Belgium. Much of the location data is uploaded by ordinary apps installed on a person's phones, which is sold to data brokers. Those data brokers then sell that data to governments and militaries."

"The dataset also included the granular location histories of Europe's top officials, including those who work directly for the European Commission, which has its headquarters in Brussels. The reporters said they were able to identify hundreds of devices belonging to people who work in sensitive areas around the EU, including 2,000 location markers from 264 officials' devices, and around 5,800 location markers from more than 750 devices in the European Parliament."

"Europe has some of the strongest data protection rules in the world with its GDPR law. However, watchdogs and officials across Europe have been slow to take stronger enforcement action against data brokers, Netpolitik reported. Data brokering has ballooned to become a billion-dollar industry involving the sale and trade of people's location data and other private information. To counter some of this location tracking, Apple customers can anonymize their device identifiers, and Android owners can regularly reset their device's identifier."

A free sample dataset from a data broker contained 278 million location data points from phones across Belgium. Much of that location data is uploaded by ordinary apps and sold to data brokers, who in turn sell it to governments and militaries. The dataset included granular location histories of top European officials, including European Commission staff in Brussels. Identification was possible for hundreds of devices in sensitive EU areas, with 2,000 markers from 264 officials' devices and about 5,800 markers from over 750 European Parliament devices. GDPR exists, but enforcement against data brokers has been slow. Device identifier anonymization and resets can reduce tracking risk.

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