A New York Times investigation has found that the information being collected about us through apps on our smartphones is far more extensive than most of us imagine — or are aware we have consented to. Guests: Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer and Michael H. Keller, reporters who cover technology for The Times; and Gabriel J.X. Dance, deputy investigations editor. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
A note about this episode: The Times identified a small number of people in the location data with their permission. It did not identify anyone else in the data.
Duration
24m
Broadcast on
10 Dec 2018
Audio Format
other
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A New York Times investigation has found that the information being collected about us through apps on our smartphones is far more extensive than most of us imagine — or are aware we have consented to. Guests: Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer and Michael H. Keller, reporters who cover technology for The Times; and Gabriel J.X. Dance, deputy investigations editor. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
A note about this episode: The Times identified a small number of people in the location data with their permission. It did not identify anyone else in the data.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
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Brought to you by the Capital One Saver Card. With Saver, you are an unlimited 3% cashback on dining, entertainment, and at grocery stores. That's unlimited cashback on ordering takeout from home. Or unlimited cashback on tickets to concerts and games. So grab a bite, grab a seat, and earn unlimited 3% cashback with the Saver Card. Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details. So I think people are used to the idea that they're being tracked in a sense. You know, they're aware that they're providing their location to apps for mapping or finding parking places, getting weather alerts, things like that. And they generally have a sense that in order for that to happen a company somewhere has to know where they are. But I don't think people understand the magnitude of the data collection or the fact that it's spreading to dozens of companies who know where they are pretty much all the time. We really are being followed. Today, an investigation by my colleague, Jennifer Valentino-Divris, finds that the information being collected about us through apps on our smartphones is far more extensive than most of us imagine or are aware we have consented to. It's Monday, December 10th. In the spring, I wrote a story about a location company that was collecting location data and allowing it to be accessed by law enforcement. And after I wrote that story, I got some tips that this space had really blown up in the past couple of years and was potentially more intrusive than it had been before. Jen started getting tips from researchers who were studying location data and that gave for the idea that there was a much bigger story. So after that, I started working with a couple of colleagues here. I'm Natasha Singer and I am a tech reporter in the Times Business section. And we began reaching out to some of these companies to try to figure out what was going on. Where is all the data going, what does it mean, what are the implications for consumers, and a lot of them gave us the cold shoulder and even the ones that would talk had these sort of canned responses. Companies in the location data industry say that consumers knowingly turn on these location services. They're getting a benefit of localized information. The apps are free and are being paid for by location-based ads. And so it's a fair tradeoff, and by the way, ladies, don't worry your pretty little heads about where the data is going because it's all anonymous. But it appeared that there was a huge gap between what they were doing and what consumers understood they were doing. So we turned to the web. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Thanks everybody for joining the webinar today. And we watched a lot of videos, webinars and videos. Today's webinar is titled "Why Location is the Future of Digital Marketing." Because even though they don't want to talk to the press, they do want to tell potential clients how awesome their services are. They actually start to paint a pretty nice picture of who somebody is based on the real
Transcription truncated.
A New York Times investigation has found that the information being collected about us through apps on our smartphones is far more extensive than most of us imagine — or are aware we have consented to. Guests: Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer and Michael H. Keller, reporters who cover technology for The Times; and Gabriel J.X. Dance, deputy investigations editor. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
A note about this episode: The Times identified a small number of people in the location data with their permission. It did not identify anyone else in the data.
