Mobilewalla Used Cellphone Data To Estimate the Demographics of Protesters (buzzfeednews.com) 24
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: On the weekend of May 29, thousands of people marched, sang, grieved, and chanted, demanding an end to police brutality and the defunding of police departments in the aftermath of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. They marched en masse in cities like Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, empowered by their number and the assumed anonymity of the crowd. And they did so completely unaware that a tech company was using location data harvested from their cellphones to predict their race, age, and gender and where they lived. Just over two weeks later, that company, Mobilewalla, released a report titled "George Floyd Protester Demographics: Insights Across 4 Major US Cities." In 60 pie charts, the document details what percentage of protesters the company believes were male or female, young adult (18-34); middle-aged 3554, or older (55+); and "African-American," "Caucasian/Others," "Hispanic," or "Asian-American."
"African American males made up the majority of protesters in the four observed cities vs. females," Mobilewalla claimed. "Men vs. women in Atlanta (61% vs. 39%), in Los Angeles (65% vs. 35%), in Minneapolis (54% vs. 46%) and in New York (59% vs. 41%)." The company analyzed data from 16,902 devices at protests -- including exactly 8,152 devices in New York, 4,527 in Los Angeles, 2,357 in Minneapolis, and 1,866 in Atlanta. It's unclear how accurate Mobilewalla's analysis actually is. But Mobilewalla's report is another revelation from a wild west of obscure companies with untold amounts of sensitive information about individuals -- including where they go and what their political allegiances may be. There are no federal laws in place to prevent this information from being abused. Mobilewalla's privacy policy says that people have the right to opt out of certain uses of their personal information. But it also says, "Even if you opt out, we, our Clients and third parties may still collect and use information regarding your activities on the Services, Properties, websites and/or applications and/or information from advertisements for other legal purposes as described herein."
Mobilewalla CEO Anindya Datta said the company didn't prepare the report for law enforcement or a public agency, but rather to satisfy its own employees' curiosity about what its vast trove of unregulated data could reveal about the demonstrators. He added that the company doesn't plan to include information about whether a person attended a protest to its clients, or to law enforcement agencies.
"African American males made up the majority of protesters in the four observed cities vs. females," Mobilewalla claimed. "Men vs. women in Atlanta (61% vs. 39%), in Los Angeles (65% vs. 35%), in Minneapolis (54% vs. 46%) and in New York (59% vs. 41%)." The company analyzed data from 16,902 devices at protests -- including exactly 8,152 devices in New York, 4,527 in Los Angeles, 2,357 in Minneapolis, and 1,866 in Atlanta. It's unclear how accurate Mobilewalla's analysis actually is. But Mobilewalla's report is another revelation from a wild west of obscure companies with untold amounts of sensitive information about individuals -- including where they go and what their political allegiances may be. There are no federal laws in place to prevent this information from being abused. Mobilewalla's privacy policy says that people have the right to opt out of certain uses of their personal information. But it also says, "Even if you opt out, we, our Clients and third parties may still collect and use information regarding your activities on the Services, Properties, websites and/or applications and/or information from advertisements for other legal purposes as described herein."
Mobilewalla CEO Anindya Datta said the company didn't prepare the report for law enforcement or a public agency, but rather to satisfy its own employees' curiosity about what its vast trove of unregulated data could reveal about the demonstrators. He added that the company doesn't plan to include information about whether a person attended a protest to its clients, or to law enforcement agencies.
Magnificent Datta (Score:2)
To paraphrase my favorite part of the article: "We weren't trying to make money from it. We did it because we were bored."
If you are going to need a phone at a protest (Score:3)
do yourself a favor and go buy one at a dollar store.
Re: If you are going to need a phone at a protest (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
No just the SIM card.
Re: (Score:2)
> No just the SIM card.
That still won't affect the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier) which can be traced via cell-tower triangulation.
Re: (Score:2)
That's true, good point.
Re:If you are going to need a phone at a protest (Score:5, Insightful)
So citizens that want to protest an injustice now have to buy a second phone first?
What I worry about are the people who learn about this tracking, and decide to not protest. When analyzing the pros and cons of these new surveillance technologies this factor is often overlooked. Aside from whether it 'works' or not, what does it do to people to know the system exists in the first place?
What we should worry about are the people who no longer protest because they worry it might negatively impact their future opportunities, or the opportunities of the people they care about. We live in a world where everything sticks, and people are starting to act on this insight. With every data leak and broken privacy promise this vague feeling of 'being watched all the time' spreads.
Those chilling effects are rarely given enough weight, probably because they require long term thinking, and because are so difficult to quantify. It will always be easier to measure the impact of a message that was posted, than a message that wasn't.
Now you may think "great, we could do with a little less online loud mouths", but this dampening impacts faint voices the most. See for example the recent research into online chilling effects by Oxford researcher Jon Penney [ssrn.com], who points out that women seem to be applying self censorship to a disproportionate level.
Re: (Score:2)
What I worry about are the people who learn about this tracking, and decide to not protest. [...] What we should worry about are the people who no longer protest because they worry it might negatively impact their future opportunities, or the opportunities of the people they care about. We live in a world where everything sticks, and people are starting to act on this insight.
Actions have consequences. Sign your name large and proud. Get arrested and add your name to the roll of people who actually care about changing things.
Otherwise you are just a tourist: someone who didn't have to go to work and thought they would go hang out and party, be seen, show they are the right kind of person, but without any sort of personal cost.
What I am saying is that either things are important, or they aren't... Pick your battles, commit, and win.
Misleading statement in the summary (Score:5, Informative)
which might mislead casual readers of the summary to think that the majority of the protestors were African American males.
In fact, 76 to 85% of the protestors were caucasian/other, and only 3 to 15% of the protesters (varying by city) were African American.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, the obvious spin on the truth.
But this is the "first time" whites have supported equality!
Re:Misleading statement in the summary (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, I was coming here to say that - the pie charts do not correlate at all with that statement.
Maybe they've spun it to take the data that african american men outnumbered white causasian women (possible, given the dangers inherent in staying there particularly after dark) but even that is a stretch. In LA only 3% of the protestors were black!
Still, nice to know the 18-34 age range marxist student types were out in force, as always, using whatever excuse they could find for a bit of smash-the-system-comrades communist agitprop.
I'm sick of these weasel words (Score:3)
...the company doesn't plan to include information about whether a person attended a protest to its clients, or to law enforcement agencies.
That damned well isn't the same as saying "the company plans not to include information about whether a person attended a protest to its clients, or to law enforcement agencies." I read these kinds of pseudo-assurances from corporate representatives all the time. People need to be sensitive to such fingers-crossed mollifications and start calling bullshit on them.
Re: (Score:2)
"Don't worry, we just did it to see how creepy we could be, we didn't do anything wrong."
By demographics, I am assuming they mean race (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
And age, gender, income.
Good (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Since it is mainly a marxist movement it's no surprise young white people are the predominant group at these events.
Is this because people leave location services on? (Score:2)
Is this data collected because people turn location service on all the time and give permission to any app that asks for it?
Re: (Score:2)
You'd have to assume so.
With Bluetooth on all the time each device that shares it's current location is also able to share the approximate location of any device that comes with in 30-100 meters depending on if the bluetooth radio in the device has full "industrial" capability. That's how these COVID apps work, some how they give scarlet letter to one bluetooth device id, and then any device that comes with in range is warned that there's a sicko nearby.