Data traders are offering the location data of millions of Belgians for sale. Although this data is anonymous, it can often be easily linked to individuals, as reported by L'Echo and De Tijd on Tuesday.
L'Echo did this not only for one of its own journalists, but also for at least five people who work or have worked for the European Union, including three high-ranking officials.
In collaboration with, among others, the French newspaper Le Monde, the Dutch broadcaster BNR and the German website Netzpolitik.org, L'Echo obtained hundreds of millions of location points from some 2.6 million smartphones used in our country.
The data made it possible to map out precisely which places specific phone users visited, from their home address to their workplace and their children's school to their fitness centre or favourite restaurant.
This is data that smartphone users themselves disclose by downloading certain games or other apps that record their location.
The developers of these apps sell the data to data brokers, who then offer it to marketing or advertising companies.
According to the data brokers, the data they sell is anonymous: it only consists of unique identification numbers linked to devices. However, anyone who purchases such data can reportedly track the movements and habits of smartphone users.
Many of the localised phones were located at NATO or European Commission sites in Brussels, at Belgian military bases such as Kleine-Brogel, at the Doel and Tihange nuclear power plants, or in high-security prisons.
