Privacy and data protection in Maptrends
Updated: May 14, 2020
In the news we read about data privacy breaches. Rogue companies that sell data that violate regulations and data security for profit. This creates uncertainty and mistrust for all companies that work with mobility analyses and insight into movement patterns. Insight that can help solve environmental, traffic and perhaps even virus spreading challenges.
Apps that track and store data about us as individuals and how we have moved in detail are found in all smartphones. Maptrends was aware of this problem as early as 2017. That's also why we didn't want to base our movement patterns on GPS and apps, but on the mobile phone's SIM card.
The big difference is that while in-app tracking is based on GPS, Maptrends is based on radio technology. This technology is not very accurate at first, but with the right technology, the information can be used to the benefit of society.
Maptrend's advanced algorithms manage to find patterns of movement for the population based on the location of the mobile phone connected to and between base stations and mobile cells. This is data is basically inaccurate and has a lot of noise, but our models and analytical engine are able to make sense of the data, filter and wash it into usable and visual patterns. The data models can be searched and the amount and time span makes interesting change of patterns over time and dates. Maptrends is all about mass movements, trends and statistics over time.
In relation to privacy, all data is already anonymous even before being released from the telco's network. In addition, and to ensure that we comply with regulations and laws as well as GDPR, all data is deleted where there are groups with numbers below 20 individuals.
Our business model and technology has been tested by the country's leading law firm on privacy. The privacy and protection of the individual must and will always come first.
It is Maptrend's top priority.
