Telefónica to resell user location tracking data

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/telefonica-to-resell-user-location-tracking-data-95462

http://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/news/...ll-big-data-through-new-dynamic-insights-unit

http://dynamicinsights.telefonica.com/

 

These are the things I think are worthy enough of worrying over and complaining about. The data being anonymous doesn't matter, but of course that's the trick to make it all seem innocent and harmless to the public.

 

I'm delighted we're finally agreeing on something, let's skip the worrying and complaining and go straight to the critical debate

These things are happening, there's no way around it as there is simply too much money & (market) power involved. The question is, under which conditions? Are adequate safeguards in place? If so, how? If not, what then?

 

I pick my battles, Pinga. That whole thing back in the Edge discussion was just one small part of a very real issue..but I wanted to be clear that that particular instance was not worth fighting over as we can avoid those sort of things. What is becoming harder to avoid are issues such as tracking via mobile devices and government tracking. Without turning off our GPS capabilities in our devices... some of which have become increasing difficult to shut down if we can at all...we're at the mercy of these companies that force such tracking on us and, due to the fact that no one reads contracts and you either agree to them or don't use the device, can sell the data whether we darn well like it or not.

We're increasingly losing the ability to say no, unless of course we're willing to go without a lot of neat and helpful things. We no longer "own" hardly anything. Heck, we're both typing our messages out on operating systems we paid our money for, but we don't own. We can't get much help from government because they're too busy right now doing their own tracking that we can't stop, and people generally aren't caring about the issue and/or don't want to go without their neat little gadgets..even if they've essentially become a walking wiretap for the companies we pay money to.

 

So perhaps, then, we should redefine ownership somehow as a society. In fact this is already happening, think open source and copyright debates. The media ownership discussion itself has been around for decades:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

It used to be about rather static entities such as traditional newspapers and broadcasting outlets. Today, media use has become more pervasive, more interactive, convergent and in real time. 'Big data' is another game-changing factor, as well as the increasingly ambiguous role of national governments.

So either we trust the markets and governments to take care of this, come what may, or we formulate alternative concepts. Unless of course you're cynical enough to claim these iPhone zombies deserve a totalitarian regime

 

Meanwhile in Germany, the Data Protection Commissioner has spoken:

http://www.h-online.com/security/ne...-to-turn-customer-data-into-cash-1739251.html

 

Hmm, well, the copyright "wars" and debates are actually showing to be more harmful than beneficial..unless you count corporate wallets Open source is a wonderful thing, but it vs closed source is and will always be about business and not really what is "good for us".

Actually, like they always did before, the markets could take care of many things itself. Not allowing them to is what is causing more problems than the current one you and I are discussing. However, the "markets" have decided they like politics too and have meandered their way into the upper echelons, which is why we're getting so much push back from the proponents of data collection/tracking. They've got big pockets and politicians behind them.

I don't think anyone deserves what we're getting, no matter how stupid and blind people can be. I'm just not sure that we'll be able to do anything other than refuse to use services or keep playing a game of back and forth, using tools that are effective for a little while but then as they push harder and find ways around our workarounds make us find new, probably more cumbersome ways to stave them off.

We're fighting the same way against data hoarders and tracking that security companies are fighting against malware creators, and we're both losing the overall war no matter how many skirmishes we win. Yes, that's a very glass half empty way to look at things, but sometimes the truth really smarts.

 

I'm glad to see some still have their heads on straight. And, it seems Telefónica gives you a way out of this? If that's true, kudos to them for being sensible about it.

 

The German government won't allow it:

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/un...funkanbieter-o2-vor-datenhandel-a-864591.html

 

Will they offer an opt out?

 

Taken from the article at the very bottom: "Customers do, however, have the option of writing to O2 to say that they do not want their data to be used in this way."

 

It's been a while since I've needed to speak German so that was an exercise I'm happy the Ministry took the side of consumers.