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Stephane Hamel
Digital marketing & analytics shaped by data governance, privacy and ethics | Educator · Speaker · Consultant
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April 30, 2024
"FCC fines wireless carriers millions for sharing user locations without consent" https://lnkd.in/gnQnA_9s Are we really surprised? 🤨 Geolocation is one of the most sensitive and neglected types of data. Let's look at what is going on in Canada: • EnStream is a joint venture by the largest telcos in Canada. "Reliable mobile device location that can’t be spoofed and that requires no preloaded device software. Supported on any mobile device on any participating network." See: https://lnkd.in/gur3Uj5g • Sharing of 33 million devices with the Public Health Agency of Canada by Telus and Rogers during COVID sparked an investigation from the OPC and concluded the info was properly de-identified. But... what about the carriers themselves? See https://lnkd.in/gUDjH8Y2 App-based geolocation is also a plague. I dug out a 2022 article from La Presse on this topic (translated & adapted): • Campsite can provide age and gender on top of geolocation. • Environics Analytics - owned by Bell - 100,000 apps feed into "MobileScape", going back in time to 2018. Raw data reveal "almost in real time" where consumers live, work, spend and play; at what time and for how long. • Propulso, can locate over 1 billion devices "to within three meters". • Spotzi relies on data from 200,000 mobile applications and combine with answers to sometimes highly intrusive survey questions. https://lnkd.in/ehDdzx_Q The Privacy Commissioner of Canada stated that Tim Horton's app violated privacy laws by collecting of ‘vast amounts’ of sensitive location data... See: https://lnkd.in/gu6VVYRc
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April 30, 2024
DID YOU KNOW? LinkedIn is spying on your browser extensions! While working on my own browser extension, I discovered that LinkedIn is actively scanning for other installed extensions. There’s code embedded in their site that loops through over 1,800 extension IDs, attempting to retrieve specific files from each extension’s package. If successful, LinkedIn knows exactly which extensions you’re using - especially those that might scrape content, automate actions, or modify their interface. This isn’t new. LinkedIn was first caught doing this over eight years ago, when they were scanning for just 38 extensions. That number has now ballooned to 1,800+! While some of these are clearly automation bots used for spam (no sympathy there), others are legitimate productivity tools. Why does this matter? This technique can be used by ANY website to detect extensions you’ve installed. It’s a powerful method for fingerprinting users - tracking them even when cookies and other identifiers are blocked. Privacy concerns. Since LinkedIn is probing elements installed on your device, doesn’t this fall under the ePrivacy Directive? There’s no mention of this practice in their privacy policy - nor any transparency about how they use this data. Is this a privacy violation? Should platforms be required to disclose this kind of tracking? Curious to hear your thoughts. #Privacy #LinkedIn #BrowserExtensions #Fingerprinting #CyberSecurity
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February 17, 2025