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Anyone can track your location using $1000 worth of mobile ads: Report

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CIOL Writers
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cybersecurity

How would you feel if you got to know that someone is constantly tracking your location by showing mobile ads? Wierd right. A new report has emerged that says anybody can track anyone's location using $1000 worth of mobile ads.

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The study shows you don't have to be a big corporation to spy on people — anyone could do it. It just takes "time, determination, and about a thousand dollars." The researchers at the University of Washington(UW) created an ad, paid about $1,000 to specify where the ad appeared, and in this way were able to track whether a particular device was at a particular location. In this way, they were able to figure out the home and work locations of people using test phones.

“The research team used 10 Moto G Android phones for testing, a mobile banner ad they created, and a website that served as the landing page if someone clicked on the ad. Then they spent the minimum $1,000 deposit to place orders with a so-called Demand Side Platform—think Facebook, Google AdWords, MediaMath, Centro, Simpli.fi, and others—that allows ad buyers to specify criteria like where their ad appears, for which unique phone identifiers, and in which apps," as Wired reported.

University of Washington researcher Paul Vines told Wired, "The potential person using this information isn’t some large corporation motivated by profits and constrained by potential lawsuits. It can be a person with relatively small amounts of money and very different motives.”

This new technology might be gain and a loss both to the user. So, it would be better to leave your mobile phone at home while going oua;t to preserve your privacy.

cybersecurity