Predictive policing uses ‘Foursquare’ to spy on taxis and public transportation

MassPrivateI

Thanks to ‘Foursquare‘, law enforcement will soon be able to spy on anyone’s travel habits without a warrant.

Last week, a Penn State article, revealed that Foursquare allowed researchers to collect data (spy) on everyone’s taxi, bus and train rides all in the name of ‘predictive policing‘.

Analysis of data from points of interest in Chicago — including restaurants, shops, nightclubs and transit stations— designated by members of FourSquare, a social media site, along with the city’s taxi flow information, offered significantly more accurate estimates of crime rates compared to traditional means.

“Big data projects could improve understanding of crime and help planners make better decisions, as well as allow communities and police to use their resources to more efficiently fight crime,” Jessie Li, assistant professor of information sciences and technology said.

The researchers used Foursquare data taken from taxi trip and public transportation records in Chicago. Some of the info., they collected included pickup and drop off times and locations, operation time and total fare amount, from October to December 2013. They also gathered 112,000 points-of-interest from FourSquare for the study.

For more info., about predictive policing read last month’s article, ‘ Citizens are being arrested before they commit future crimes.’

Foursquare admits their number one goal is spying on users

According to Foursquare’s ‘How Is My Information Stored’ section, information about our users is an integral part of our business.

…Certain Personal Information may be made available to third party developers if you or your “friends” use these third party apps. You should review the policies of third party apps and websites to ensure that you are comfortable with the ways in which they use and disclose the information you share with them. We do not guarantee that they will follow our rules or our Privacy Policy. Note that your friends will also be able to see which third party apps that you use.

Foursquare admits giving vendors your personal info.

We employ other companies and people, such as independent vendors and contractors, to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share your information with them in order form them to provide services to us. We do not authorize such vendors and contractors to use your Personal Information for their own benefit and we request that they provide a comparable level of protection for your Personal Information.

For a more detailed look into how vendors can access your personal info., click here & here.

Foursquare is spying on 50 million people

According to Foursquare’s ‘about us’ section, more than 50 million people use Foursquare and Swarm each month, which means they’re creating databases on hundreds of millions of people!

Foursquare spies on your birthday, location, Twitter, Facebook accounts and much more

According to Foursquare’s privacy page, they collect your name, email address, phone number, birthday, Twitter and Facebook usernames. They automatically receive your location when you use their services. They use various technologies to determine location, such as location services of the applicable operating system or browser and sensor data from your device like Wi-Fi- access points and cell towers.

Foursquare is spying on your friends

Four squares sends advertising and content you and your friends see (including Foursquare or third-party advertising or content), and communicating with you about specials and new features. Your Services account will be associated with a Services ID, your email (when you log into the Services) and optionally a phone number, and this account will be used for all our Services that you use. Information you provide to one of our Services may be used with other Services you or your friends use.

Last year, Twitter partnered with Foursquare to let users tag more detailed locations in tweets. According to Mashable, the deal will tap into Foursquare’s extensive database of landmarks, businesses and other venues to make those tags more specific and informative.

Researchers admit their is no scientific correlation between public transportation use and crime

“What we see here is a correlation between the taxi and points-of-interest data and crime rates,” said Li. “The data show us the correlation, but, scientifically, as far as a cause, we don’t know.”

What she’s really saying is, there isn’t any scientific data to support spying on public transportation. Basically, admitting predictive policing is junk science.

What does this mean for privacy?

Private corporations are collecting detailed information about EVERYTHING we do, from friends to travel and much more. Corporations, are turning over minute details, about our personal lives to police (DHS) without a warrant. The amount of personal data police, are collecting on everyone would make the KGB and Gestapo green with envy.

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