According to TechCrunch, journalists found it was “easy” to spy on top European Union officials using commercially obtained location data sold by brokers, despite Europe having some of the strongest data protection laws globally. A coalition of reporters obtained a dataset containing 278 million location data points from millions of phones around Belgium, offered as a free sample from a data broker. The data included granular location histories of Europe’s top officials, with 2,000 location markers from 264 officials’ devices and about 5,800 markers from more than 750 devices in the European Parliament. EU officials said they’re “concerned” about this trade and have issued new guidance to staff. Much of this location data comes from ordinary phone apps that sell information to brokers, who then resell it to governments and militaries in what’s become a billion-dollar industry.
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<h2 id="the-privacy-paradox”>The Privacy Paradox
Here’s the thing that really gets me: Europe has GDPR, which is supposed to be the gold standard for data protection. But apparently it’s not stopping this massive location data marketplace from operating right under their noses. We’re talking about officials who work directly for the European Commission having their every move tracked and sold. And if it’s this easy for journalists to get this data, imagine what actual adversaries could do.
Basically, your phone is a tracking device that you pay for yourself. Those free apps you download? Many of them are quietly selling your location history to data brokers. The brokers then package and resell it – sometimes to governments, sometimes to whoever can pay. Remember that Gravy Analytics breach last year that exposed tens of millions of people’s locations? That was just one broker.
What You Can Actually Do
So what can you do about it? Well, there are some basic steps. Apple users can anonymize their device identifiers, and Android owners can regularly reset their device’s identifier. Apple’s support page explains how to limit tracking, though let’s be honest – most people never touch these settings.
But here’s the real question: should the burden be on individuals to protect themselves from an entire industry built on surveillance? I don’t think so. The fact that reporters could get this data as a “free sample” shows how normalized this tracking has become. And we’re not just talking about showing you targeted ads – this is detailed movement patterns of government officials.
The Enforcement Gap
The Netzpolitik report notes that European watchdogs have been “slow to take stronger enforcement action against data brokers.” That’s putting it mildly. We’ve got laws on the books, but if nobody’s enforcing them against this billion-dollar industry, what’s the point?
Look, this isn’t just about EU officials. If their locations are this exposed, what about journalists, activists, or regular citizens? The data brokers have created a shadow surveillance economy, and right now, they’re operating with near-impunity. Until regulators actually start treating this like the privacy crisis it is, we’re all just data points waiting to be sold.
