Locate X Marks the Spot: The Scary Truth About Your Location Data and How to Protect Yourself
Locate X is a location tracking tool that lets users pinpoint individuals’ whereabouts via smartphone data. Developed by Babel Street, it exploits our unregulated data market to sell location info. This endangers vulnerable groups and abortion-seekers. To stop this, lawmakers must limit data harvesting and enforce stronger privacy laws.
Hot Take:
Who needs a private investigator when you can just buy a data broker’s subscription? Thanks to Locate X, your whereabouts are now more public than your Facebook status updates from 2009. It’s like Google Maps, but for stalkers, and with a disturbing disregard for privacy laws. Maybe we should all just invest in tinfoil hats for our smartphones.
Key Points:
- Locate X is a location tracking tool developed by Babel Street, capable of tracking individuals via smartphone location data.
- Location data is largely unregulated, allowing services like Locate X to thrive and put vulnerable groups at risk.
- EFF highlights the dangers of location tracking, especially in relation to reproductive rights in a post-Dobbs America.
- Data brokers sell location information to anyone willing to pay, bypassing legal requirements for law enforcement.
- Legislative action is needed to limit data collection, sharing, and law enforcement’s access to location data without proper safeguards.
Already a member? Log in here