Big Brother

 

Every Breath You Take

Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you

Is your cellphone watching you?

Your smart cell phone may not know if “you’ve been bad or good” and it may not know whether “you’re sleeping” or “you’re awake”, but it probably knows where you have been. It  can use some additional processing to determine where you are between say 12 AM and  4 AM and might decide that the most frequently observed location is your home. It can use some additional processing to determine where you are between  9 AM and 12 PM on weekdays and decide the most frequently observed location is probably your workplace.  

With access to another database, that home location might be used to provide other information such as an address, and the work location might be used to provide a company or agency name and an address. In some cases that information might have been intentionally blurred, but combining datasets might yield information which was not intended to be disclosed. 

There have been court cases where cell phone location has been used to try and associate absence, or presence, near a location with activity at that location.  “Your Honor, my client could not have committed the crime because his cellphone shows he was nowhere near the scene of the crime at the time of the crime.”  So be good for goodness sake.