Dutch people location data being traded

Location History of Millions of Dutch People Traded Online

You can find out where millions of Dutch people have been without great effort, warns BNR Thursday. Data traders offer extensive advertising profiles of around four million Dutch people online. This allows you to see where someone lives, works and often visits.

Concerns about Privacy and Data Security

The advertising profiles offered online contain anonymized data. This means that you cannot deduce from the data itself who the data belongs to. But by studying the location data, you can find out where that anonymous person lives, works, and often visits. If you link that location data to other databases, such as the Land Registry, you can still discover who owns the data. BNR was therefore able to track the movements of a high-ranking officer in the army, visitors to a palace of the Royal House, and a visitor to a prison, BNR research editor Eric van den Berg tells NU.nl.

The data traded online comes from your own phone. As soon as you give permission to an app to follow you, that app collects a lot of data, such as information about the places you go. All collected data is sent to the advertising network and linked to your own unique advertising ID. With that unique number, advertisers can see exactly which data belongs to you. Based on all this data, an advertiser can show you targeted advertisements.

Advertising Profiles Popular with Intelligence Services

Because the advertising profiles are traded online, the data can also be used for other purposes. The data can, for example, be purchased by intelligence services. They can use this data to monitor the actions of large groups of people. “As I understand it, our own intelligence services also purchase these types of files,” says Van den Berg. “Anyone who wants to do harm can do harm with this.” The only barrier is that the databases cost money, Van den Berg continues. “The data can be misused by vindictive exes, organized crime and stalkers. And even for corporate espionage. It is very sensitive data!”

You Can Turn Off Tracking

You can prevent others from finding out where you have been. To do this, you can revoke tracking permission from apps. In addition, it is advisable to regularly renew your advertising ID. You can do this on both Android smartphones and Apple iPhones in the privacy settings of your phone.