Tracking the Trackers

If you are a naturally trusting individual, you may use your smartphone or tablet computer with hardly a thought about what companies or agencies might be pulling your location information via its installed GPS tracker. If you are more suspicious, or perhaps spooked by the recent revelations about NSA “snooping,” you probably wonder about it a little more. You might even go as far as disabling your device’s GPS tracker unless you are using it for a specific purpose. But does anyone really know exactly what location data their phone is sending out, and to whom? A fascinating new research project wants to change the answer from “no” to “yes.”

Answering the Big Question

For many people, the big question is “who is getting GPS information from my phone?”. Parts of that answer lie buried in the fine print attached to the apps you download onto your device: murky disclaimers and notifications about using your location. The developers of these apps know that most users will never see those notifications, and even those that do see them will most likely forget about them quickly. If these users leave their GPS unit activated, the apps are free to collect and send location data freely.

Should we worry about this situation? It all depends on your stance toward privacy. You may actually enjoy receiving text messages and social media notifications about events close to your physical location. If that benefit outweighs your concerns about the possibility of government snooping and corporate misuse of your data, then you will not worry too much. But if you are trying hard to keep your private information private, your phone’s GPS tracker is likely a source of great frustration!

An Eye-Opening App

Researchers at Rutgers University are trying out a new app in a limited study that could change the way we think about GPS tracking information. The researchers, aware that most people have no idea what data companies are gathering from their devices, built an app that provides that information to its user.

At the moment, the app is not available to the public, and it was not really designed as a marketable product. Instead, the Rutgers team is interested in analyzing how awareness of GPS and other data collection might affect the everyday lives of people. During the study, researchers spoke with the participants on a regular basis to find out how the new information changed the way they thought and acted. The main take-away from the study? In general, people like finding out where their GPS data is going. They like it a lot.

How it Works

The people behind the Rutgers application report that it was fairly difficult to design a program that would look at the activities of other programs on the same device. The permissions needed to directly interact with other applications would be a programming nightmare, so the team took a different approach. Their app speaks directly to the phone or tablet’s system, asking for information about recent activity using its GPS unit. The answers to those queries give enough data to tell the user just what has been going on.

Applications use “methods,” predetermined phrases that request specific permissions to use GPS data on your phone. Think of them as passwords that an app must “say” to your phone’s system in order to use a piece of information. Here are a few of the most important methods that developers use in the area of location:

getGpsStatus	Asks for the current status of the phone’s GPS unit
requestLocationUpdates	Asks for updates on the phone’s location based on provided criteria
removeUpdates	Cancels location update request
getLastKnownLocation	Requests an update on the last registered GPS position

The app designed by the Rutgers team uses “getLastKnownLocation” to ask the device directly about the last GPS data collection event. With that method, the app can find out what program accessed the information and pass the news on to the user. Users in the study were surprised, to say the least, about the level of GPS reporting that was going on behind the scenes.

Going On From Here

Good news for privacy-concerned technology users: the Rutgers researchers have plans to expand the app’s use using Google Play. Distribution to the public may be a slow process, but with the high level of interest in GPS data usage transparency, it is only a matter of time before this or a similar program hits the market.

Will public awareness change the way businesses seek and use GPS data? Maybe, but it is also possible that the convenience and enjoyment of GPS-powered functions will still outweigh privacy concerns in the minds of most people. Until then, read that fine print carefully the next time you install an app!

Tracking the Trackers