However, user interaction patterns can be tracked based on anonymous telephone data. For this reason, the current practice of anonymity is no longer compatible with European privacy law. Researchers in the American Scientific Journal concluded that temper nature .
There is currently strict European legislation when it comes to the privacy of phone messages and conversations. No person may display, distribute or sell this data without express permission. However, messages also contain what is called metadata. This is information about the message, such as when it was sent or when the app was opened. It also contains information about the device you connected to and where you were when you opened the app. All this is stored in the metadata.
However, privacy legislation regarding metadata is more flexible. Much more can be done with this data if it is anonymous. This data can then be sold without the explicit consent of the user.
The algorithm can predict all kinds of things based on metadata. This way you can find out who someone’s partner is, what they are spending money on or where they are during the day. To prevent companies from placing such detailed profiles, the metadata must be anonymised.
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However, computer scientists from the UK, Switzerland and Italy have now shown that anonymous metadata can still be traced back to you as a person. This can be done via a technique called “deep engineering learning”. This is the same technique that underlies research on neural networks in the brain, for example.
The study consisted of a data set of anonymous telephone records of 43,000 people. Based on the interactions all of these people had on a weekly basis, the model was able to determine who she was interacting with and who she was communicating with in more than half of the cases. Only on the basis of direct interactions, the model can correctly identify a person 15% of the time.
Ramifications
“These researchers have found another way to trace individuals back,” says Friedrich Zwerdervin Borgesius, professor of information and communications technology and law at Radboud University Nijmegen. against the norwegian refugee council. “They cannot put a name or address on phone data with this, but it is no longer completely anonymous, and it is often claimed. The limits of what is personal data and what therefore falls under the GDPR) [Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming] falls, it’s moving more and more thanks to these kinds of techniques.”
In order to be allowed to sell metadata, carriers will have to further anonymize the metadata. Zuiderveen Borgesius adds: “They can also start to treat them better by doing their own analyses, on how crowds of people are spreading across a city, for example, and selling the results.”
This way, identifiable data about individuals will not end up in the hands of other companies. Companies that want to use metadata to track you or better advertise you have had no luck. Only socially relevant research findings will be announced.
