T-Mobile shared traceable location data with CBS for algorithm building – IT Pro – News

T-Mobile has shared user data with Statistics Netherlands for many years. It concerns non-anonymous, traceable data. Among other things, the location data was used to build an algorithm with which people flows were mapped.

Statistics Netherlands already signed a contract with T-Mobile for data sharing in 2017, NRC writes on the basis of documents who requested it via the Government Information (Public Access) Act. That contract states that T-Mobile would be allowed to pass on anonymous location data of users to Statistics Netherlands. That wanted to create an algorithm to see how the Dutch move in large groups. The plan was later expanded to also collect other data, including payment data, but it is not clear whether that data was actually used. Statistics Netherlands also wanted to make money with the algorithm. This is necessary, because the institute is affiliated with the government, but at the same time has to independently take care of part of its own budget.

According to the contract, T-Mobile would also be allowed to use the algorithm. With this, the provider would like to map visitor flows in its own stores, among other things.

Initially it would only concern anonymized data. But at a later point in the pilot project, the collaboration would have shifted to data that could be traced back to the person. From January 2018, Statistics Netherlands employees with laptops were allowed to physically work with the data in the T-Mobile building. In addition, ‘full access’ would be possible, according to the documents that NRC read. In fact, there would be so much data available that employees complained that it was difficult to process all of it.

Statistics Netherlands and T-Mobile say to NRC that it concerns pseudonymised data. In addition, imei numbers were replaced by a different identifier. However, for a while there would be imsi data that was not pseudonymised or anonymised.

Work with the location data continued until at least the beginning of the corona crisis. Then several governments came up with a plan to use location data from telecom providers to track crowds. The Dutch Data Protection Authority then said that it should not just be. The CBS and T-Mobile then decided to end the collaboration on April 1, 2020.

Users were not informed of the plans. The cooperation was discussed with the regulators, but no information was given that there was access to non-anonymous data. The Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Telecom Agency are going according to NRC now conducting research to data sharing.

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