"Checking-in" – a process once associated with
airports and hotels has taken on a whole new meaning in the last
year or so.
More and more of us use a wide range of electronic devices to
check-in on our social networking websites of choice such as
Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare to let all our friends know exactly
where we are and what we are doing there. However, be warned, this
"location data" is not just being seen by your
friends.
A study carried out by two North American universities revealed
that a staggering 95% of mobile phone users can be identified from
their location data alone and (even more surprisingly) it only
takes 4 pieces of time and location data to do it.
The research parallels a study conducted in the 1930's which
revealed that you only need 12 points to identify a fingerprint.
Similarly, it is thought that human movement is so unique and
limited in scope that it acts almost like a fingerprint and
accordingly, as an identifier.
