I used to think data scraping was no big deal until a friend showed me her stalker's log

She pulled up this spreadsheet of her location history from a fitness app API and it had timestamps down to the minute. Made me realize how much raw personal data is just sitting there waiting to be abused, has anyone else had a moment where the threat felt real?

3 comments

3 Comments

taraross1mo ago

timestamps down to the minute" - it's wild how we've normalised handing over our whole life map for free.

the_susan1mo ago

Oh my god I didn't even catch that at first. That's terrifying. Like someone is sitting there with a map of everywhere you've been and every minute you spent there. I always figured the metadata was there but seeing it laid out like that makes me feel sick honestly. It's one thing to know your phone tracks you but another to realize it's that detailed and accessible. And we just agreed to it in some terms of service we never read. Makes me want to go through my settings and turn off everything location related right now.

gavin2281mo ago

@susan "we just agreed to it" - did you actually find a way to turn it all off, or is it buried too deep?