There is an Entire Industry That Links Unique Ids Linked To Phones To Real People And Their Address
https://www.vice.comTech companies have repeatedly reassured the public that trackers used to follow smartphone users through apps are anonymous or at least pseudonymous, not directly identifying the person using the phone. But what they don’t mention is that an entire overlooked industry exists to purposefully and explicitly shatter that anonymity.
They do this by linking mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) collected by apps to a person’s full name, physical address, and other personal identifiable information (PII).
Anyone and everyone who has a phone and has installed an app that has ads, currently is at risk of being de-anonymized via unscrupulous companies,” Zach Edwards, a researcher who has closely followed the supply chain of various sources of data, told Motherboard in an online chat.
