Replay Six Months Of A German Politician's Life Thanks To His Mobile Phone Data

from the press-play dept

Tue, Mar 29th 2011 12:30pm — Mike Masnick

Various governments have tried to claim that it's no big deal to get your location data from mobile phone providers -- with US law enforcement suggesting such information shouldn't even require a warrant at times. But it's interesting to see just how much that kind of data can reveal about someone. Shane Richmond points us to an absolutely fascinating visualization put together by the German newspaper Die Zeit. Apparently German politician Malte Spitz sued Deutsche Telekom to get access to his own location and phone data (the kind of thing that governments request all the time) and then handed it over to Zeit, who put together a stunning visualization of six months of Spitz's life. You can see where he is at all times, and Zeit cross referenced the information with other public information, including Twitter feeds, blog entries and other websites, to provide context and details as to Spitz's life. Somewhat eye-opening in how much information can be put together concerning your life with access to such phone data...

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: data, germany, malte spitz, mobile phone, privacy

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Markus (profile), 29 Mar 2011 @ 12:43pm

But what about the Public Public?
I see how this relates to the concern of what data the government has access to without our permission, but I'm much more interested in what society looks like when we can all do this to each other? So many people participate in geo location services, and more and more of them are turning on automatic check ins. Does the government's intrusion into records like this have much meaning when people are completely exposing themselves? I'm honestly asking that question, not trying to argue the answer is no.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 12:52pm

Big Brother is alive and International.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Cipher-0, 29 Mar 2011 @ 12:57pm

And friends wonder why I use a burn-phone without internet access and barely able to get SMS.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
blah, 29 Mar 2011 @ 1:10pm

Re:
Funny - my friends wonder why i don't even have a phone.

My wife has two pay-as-you-go phones that don't require any personally identifying information to purchase and re-load (you can buy cards with pre-paid minutes on them from the store with cash).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 1:13pm

Well what you people expected from a former employee from the industry that is full of crooks and real criminals?

What is shocking is that she actually got a job as a judge.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 1:14pm

The bar to be a judge these days must be very, very low to allow people from a notorious crooked industry to become one.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 1:28pm

Re:
lol, your in the wrong story
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gwiz (profile), 29 Mar 2011 @ 1:33pm

Re: Re:
The curse of the browser tab feature strikes again.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
drkkgt (profile), 29 Mar 2011 @ 1:45pm

Re: But what about the Public Public?
It does because of the choice of people.
If I choose to make this information publicly available then the government has free access to it no warrant involved.
If I choose NOT to post these types of things, then the government doesn't get free reign to it without a proper warrant.
If I choose to share this information say on Facebook but lock it ONLY to friends then the government should not be allowed to snoop my facebook account without a warrant. Granted, if my friends share the info with them, then I will have a few less friends but no beef with the government (which is funny because the government also thinks that this is completely fair EXCEPT when wikileaks does it of course.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 2:06pm

Re: Re:
Damn tabs I lost track of them LoL

Sorry.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jan, 29 Mar 2011 @ 2:14pm

Broken website?
Is it just me or is that website broken? It seems to me that the left side of the web - the one with the play button - is hidden. I tried Firefox 4 and Opera with no luck:-(
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Markus Hopkins (profile), 29 Mar 2011 @ 2:15pm

Re: Re: But what about the Public Public?
Oh, I certainly agree that a privacy concern exists. My question is more about what happens to this concern when/if almost everyone is posting this information all of the time. Does every expectation of privacy evaporate? And more than this, do we end up with an environment where we expect law enforcement to be actively monitoring this information? For example, what if I have a restraining order against you, and you violate that order. Should the police just know? That's only one relevant scenario in which this type of information being freely available is relevant, and I ask about this stuff only because it looks like this is the direction in which our society could potentially head. More and more people seem to be completely unconcerned with their privacy, and there is a cultural incentive to share more and more information about ourselves. Does a concern like the one this exposes have relevance for those people (and not just the "curmudgeons" that keep themselves off the social "grid," as it were)?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 3:59pm

Re: Broken website?
It's fine in Chrome.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Patrick, 29 Mar 2011 @ 5:09pm

Re: Re:
That's very interesting.

In Australia you cannot buy a phone (pre-paid or otherwise) without showing ID.

Even if you bring a phone and want to get a SIM for it, you have to show ID to buy a SIM.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 9:49pm

Re: Re:
Do you pay someone else to go buy the prepaid cards for you? You likely get caught on video buying the cards, including your car in the parking lot. Don't know about you but I made my tinfoil hat from a double layer of the extra thick foil.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2011 @ 11:14pm

Re: But what about the Public Public?
There is a clear distinction between what information you choose to convey to others and that which you are forced to by the government.

To put it bluntly: There is a difference between sex and rape.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Danny (profile), 30 Mar 2011 @ 10:11am

Gander
So does this mean we can use FOIA to get our hands on the Wisc Governor's phone records?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Danny (profile), 30 Mar 2011 @ 10:11am

Gander
So does this mean we can use FOIA to get our hands on the Wisc Governor's phone records?
[ link to this | view in thread ]