My Phone Was Spying on Me, so I Tracked Down the Surveillants

THREAD on the location data industry and how European personal data ended up at a U.S. government contractor.

There are 160 apps on my phone. What they’re actually doing, I don’t know. So I decided to figure it out by using the power of the GDPR - or the more lame name of subject access requests (SAR).
Long story short – I got a lot of data on my movements. Actually more than 75.000 data points on my precise location.

Home and work:
How: I designed an experiment where I installed a lot of apps on an Android phone. I then consented to sharing my location data. Then I turned the tables: By using SARs I stitch together the data flows from me to different companies. (Better graphics in article.)
The app Funny Weather appeared in the metadata provided by Venntel and Gravy Analytics. The data might have been shared through Predicio, but the company did not respond to any requests for an interview.
Complementics and Predicio sent my personal data to Gravy Analytics, a major data broker in the marketing business. This is according to the SAR from Gravy. Gravy did not respond to comment.
Venntel is a subsidiary of Gravy Analytics. Venntel has a lot of government contracts – CBP, ICE, IRS, FBI, DEA. What these agencies actually use the data for @ByronTau (WSJ) and @josephfcox (Motherboard) have a lot of good reporting on.
Venntel told me in a subject access request that my data was shared, but they did not provide to whom. When contacted later - they told me in a short statement that the data was not shared with ICE or CBP.
ENGLISH ARTICLE: https://t.co/PQOLHq5W1A
We cooperated with @josephfcox, who made this article with a US focus https://t.co/f4NSDckqao
In the article you will find statements from U.S. agencies and apps / companies.
Reaction to the reporting by @josephfcox https://t.co/qbwp42NY9v

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Rig Ved 1.36.7

To do a Namaskaar or bow before someone means that you are humble or without pride and ego. This means that we politely bow before you since you are better than me. Pranipaat(प्राणीपात) also means the same that we respect you without any vanity.

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Surrendering False pride is Namaskaar. Even in devotion or bhakti we say the same thing. We want to convey to Ishwar that we have nothing to offer but we leave all our pride and offer you ourselves without any pride in our body. You destroy all our evil karma.

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We bow before you so that you assimilate us and make us that capable. Destruction of our evils and surrender is Namaskaar. Therefore we pray same thing before and after any big rituals.

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तं घे॑मि॒त्था न॑म॒स्विन॒ उप॑ स्व॒राज॑मासते ।
होत्रा॑भिर॒ग्निं मनु॑षः॒ समिं॑धते तिति॒र्वांसो॒ अति॒ स्रिधः॑॥

Translation :

नमस्विनः - To bow.

स्वराजम् - Self illuminating.

तम् - His.

घ ईम् - Yours.

इत्था - This way.

उप - Upaasana.

आसते - To do.

स्त्रिधः - For enemies.

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अति तितिर्वांसः - To defeat fast.

मनुषः - Yajman.

होत्राभिः - In seven numbers.

अग्निम् - Agnidev.

समिन्धते - Illuminated on all sides.

Explanation : Yajmans bow(do Namaskaar) before self illuminating Agnidev by making the offerings of Havi.

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