Re: <nettime> Should mobile phone data be used to monitor public

[Andreas Broeckmann <ab@mikro.in-berlin.de>]

folks,

maybe a stupid question, but do we know which data exactly are being
handed over to authorities here? are they, for instance, GPS data
collected by and harvested from the devices, or login data from
transmission units?

and another point: what is actually being tracked here is of course
not the position of people (or human bodies), but the position of
smartphones (and also dumbphones?). it is just presumed that these
phones are always close to their human owners. (usually, from what
i have learned, they are either in a pocket, or on a string, on the
clothed body, or somewhere at max. arm's length distance.)

is it imaginable that significant numbers of people walk around
in public (or even assemble in groups; or participate in "corona
parties") without carrying a mobile phone?

considerations like this can probably be dismissed, in the bigger
picture, as statistically insignificant (minoritarian?).

which would suggest that the mobile phone does in fact function as an
"electronic ankle bracelet" (i'm sure some would today prefer to call
them "tags") that is worn or carried voluntarily. - will it be one of
the future security measures that people are not allowed to be without
a mobile phone, especially when they move around in public?

abroeck

PS: the austrian article felix posted contained a description of
fairly elaborate anonymisation efforts on the part of A1.

Germany:

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/wie-breitet-sich-das-coronavirus-aus-rki-bekommt-handydaten-von-deutscher-telekom/25655144.html



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: