<story><title>Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters</title><url>https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmickey</author><text>No need to invent new jurisprudence - if the location data can be used to identify an individual, it is personal data under the GDPR and enjoys all the rights and protections enabled by the regulation.</text></item><item><author>40acres</author><text>I think we need to reassess how we treat data generated by users via phones, devices and our digital activities. We had the concept of private and public property long before intellectual property became codified by law. I believe that we are entering a new phase which may require the development of a new type of jurisprudence around things like location data.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m definitely not a lawyer, but I&amp;#x27;m starting to believe there is an argument that despite the fact that mobile phones and devices facilitate the generation of location data, that does not necessarily mean that the device manufacture &amp;#x27;owns&amp;#x27; that data and can transact with it as they please.&lt;p&gt;This may all be moot because most of us agree to Privacy Policy contacts, but maybe a mind shift in treating data you generate as a type of property that is covered by property law is required to change behavior.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kokokokoko</author><text>In the US it is actually a big deal because data is not a &amp;quot;creative work&amp;quot; so it is not covered by copyright protection.&lt;p&gt;Because of this, black market re-sellers can operate with relative impunity. Most data brokers have a TOS that prohibits the re-selling of their data, but there isn&amp;#x27;t any copyright protection.&lt;p&gt;For example, if a company has location data, the only way for them to be held liable is for a particular company to prove they obtained that data directly from them. Once the data has reached a minimum of two parties, everyone now has plausible deniability. If this data was under copyright, the original copyright owner would always have a claim and it would be each parties responsibility to prove they had a right to hold and distribute it.&lt;p&gt;The lack of a copyright style concept of original owner allows data to flow freely even if that transfer is violating a specific TOS.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters</title><url>https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunter-300-dollars-located-phone-microbilt-zumigo-tmobile</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmickey</author><text>No need to invent new jurisprudence - if the location data can be used to identify an individual, it is personal data under the GDPR and enjoys all the rights and protections enabled by the regulation.</text></item><item><author>40acres</author><text>I think we need to reassess how we treat data generated by users via phones, devices and our digital activities. We had the concept of private and public property long before intellectual property became codified by law. I believe that we are entering a new phase which may require the development of a new type of jurisprudence around things like location data.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m definitely not a lawyer, but I&amp;#x27;m starting to believe there is an argument that despite the fact that mobile phones and devices facilitate the generation of location data, that does not necessarily mean that the device manufacture &amp;#x27;owns&amp;#x27; that data and can transact with it as they please.&lt;p&gt;This may all be moot because most of us agree to Privacy Policy contacts, but maybe a mind shift in treating data you generate as a type of property that is covered by property law is required to change behavior.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crankylinuxuser</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s fine for you Europeans under GDPR. (Sure, there&amp;#x27;s careouts for weird exceptions.)&lt;p&gt;That doesn&amp;#x27;t do diddly for us US citizens living in the US. Our data policy is &amp;quot;we will sell your data, too bad so sad&amp;quot;.</text></comment>