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Data brokers track your online activity, real identity, and location.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" /> <title>Data brokers track your online activity, real identity, and location.</title> <meta name="description" content="Personal information collected about a Catholic Priest's app activity inside a gay dating app was obtained from a data broker and used to force his resignation." /> <meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="True" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/assets/css/screen.css?v=fb81801967" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/custom-fonts.css?v=fb81801967"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://blog.disconnect.me/online-activity-data-correlated-to-real-name-sold-by-data-broker-leads-to-resignation/" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Disconnect announcements" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta 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</script> <meta name="generator" content="Ghost 0.6" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Disconnect announcements" href="https://blog.disconnect.me/rss/" /> </head> <body class="post-template nav-closed"> <div class="nav"> <h3 class="nav-title">Menu</h3> <a href="#" class="nav-close"> <span class="hidden">Close</span> </a> <ul> <li class="nav-home" role="presentation"><a href="https://disconnect.me">Home</a></li> <li class="nav-blog" role="presentation"><a href="https://blog.disconnect.me/">Blog</a></li> <li class="nav-privacy-policy" role="presentation"><a href="https://disconnect.me/privacy">Privacy policy</a></li> </ul> <a class="subscribe-button icon-feed" href="https://blog.disconnect.me/rss/">Subscribe</a> </div> <span class="nav-cover"></span> <div class="site-wrapper"> <header class="main-header post-head no-cover"> <nav class="main-nav clearfix"> <a class="menu-button icon-menu" href="#"><span class="word">Menu</span></a> </nav> </header> <main class="content" role="main"> <article class="post"> <header class="post-header"> <h1 class="post-title">Online Activity and Location Data Bought from Data Broker and Linked to Real Identity Sparks Bishop’s Resignation</h1> <section class="post-meta"> <time class="post-date" datetime="2021-07-21">21 July 2021</time> </section> </header> <section class="post-content"> <p>According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/07/20/bishop-misconduct-resign-burrill/">a report by the Washington Post</a>, top ranked US Catholic church administrator Jeffrey Burrill resigned in the wake of a story by Catholic News site The Pillar who used personal mobile data collected by a data broker to track Burrill's activities on Grindr (a gay dating app) and his location to specific gay bars.</p> <p>Disconnect CTO Patrick Jackson, who spoke to the Washington Post for this report, expects these types of cases where mobile data is de-anonymized, used, and publicly reported to become more frequent. “[Mass data surveillance] unleashes this chain that a user cannot stop because they don’t even know that [their data] was collected in the first place and they have no idea where this data actually lives, but it’s out there, and it’s for sale.” </p> <p>The detailed and personal data The Pillar received allegedly was correlated to Burrill’s phone and confirmed his location at bars visited while on work trips for the Catholic Church. The Pillar reported “A mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted app data signals from the location-based hookup app Grindr on a near-daily basis during parts of 2018, 2019, and 2020 — at both his USCCB [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] office and his USCCB-owned residence, as well as during USCCB meetings and events in other cities.”</p> <p>This case illustrates the reality that these extremely detailed and sensitive profiles are capable of being correlated back to our real identities despite data brokers' claims that the massive amount of personal data they collect about us is "anonymized". Even without a phone number or a name, device IDs and other identifiable data points can be used to tie online activity to specific individuals, including their real name, location, employer, etc. </p> <p>Our tracker protection apps block data brokers from collecting information about what you do in apps, websites, and emails. <a href="https://disconnect.me/#what-product">Check out our products</a> and protect your self today.</p> </section> <footer class="post-footer"> <figure class="author-image"> <a class="img" href="/author/disconnect/" style="background-image: url(https://disconnect-blog.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Jun/d_logo-1433617844294.svg)"><span class="hidden">Disconnect team's Picture</span></a> </figure> <section class="author"> <h4><a href="/author/disconnect/">Disconnect team</a></h4> <p>Read <a href="/author/disconnect/">more posts</a> by this author.</p> <div class="author-meta"> </div> </section> <section class="share"> <h4>Share this post</h4> <a class="icon-twitter" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Online%20Activity%20and%20Location%20Data%20Bought%20from%20Data%20Broker%20and%20Linked%20to%20Real%20Identity%20Sparks%20Bishop%E2%80%99s%20Resignation&url=https://blog.disconnect.me/online-activity-data-correlated-to-real-name-sold-by-data-broker-leads-to-resignation/" onclick="window.open(this.href, 'twitter-share', 'width=550,height=235');return false;"> <span class="hidden">Twitter</span> </a> <a class="icon-facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://blog.disconnect.me/online-activity-data-correlated-to-real-name-sold-by-data-broker-leads-to-resignation/" onclick="window.open(this.href, 'facebook-share','width=580,height=296');return false;"> <span class="hidden">Facebook</span> </a> <a class="icon-google-plus" href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=https://blog.disconnect.me/online-activity-data-correlated-to-real-name-sold-by-data-broker-leads-to-resignation/" onclick="window.open(this.href, 'google-plus-share', 'width=490,height=530');return false;"> <span class="hidden">Google+</span> </a> </section> </footer> </article> </main> <aside class="read-next"> <a class="read-next-story no-cover" href="/app-tracker-report/"> <section class="post"> <h2>Introducing Disconnect's iOS App Tracker Report</h2> <p>We just launched the Disconnect iOS App Tracker Report, the easiest way to uncover hidden trackers inside the apps…</p> </section> </a> <a class="read-next-story prev no-cover" href="/ban-surveillance/"> <section class="post"> <h2>Open Letter to Ban Surveillance Advertising</h2> <p>Letter to regulators Time to ban surveillance advertising Surveillance-based advertising permeates the internet today, creating a number of highly…</p> </section> </a> </aside> <footer class="site-footer clearfix"> <section class="copyright"><a href="https://blog.disconnect.me">Disconnect announcements</a> © 2024</section> <section class="poweredby">Proudly published with <a href="https://ghost.org">Ghost</a></section> </footer> </div> <script src="/public/jquery.min.js?v=fb81801967"></script> <!-- Piwik --> <script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; _paq.push(["setDoNotTrack", true]); _paq.push(["disableCookies"]); _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//piwik.disconnect.me/piwik/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', 7]); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src='https://disconnect.me/js/piwik-min.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script> <noscript><p><img src="//piwik.disconnect.me/piwik/piwik.php?idsite=2" style="border:0;" alt="" /></p></noscript> </script> <!-- End Piwik Code --> <script src="https://disconnectblogimages.s3.amazonaws.com/fslightbox.js"></script> <script> const images = document.querySelectorAll('.post-content img'); // Lightbox function images.forEach(function (image) { var wrapper = document.createElement('a'); wrapper.setAttribute('data-no-swup', ''); wrapper.setAttribute('data-fslightbox', ''); wrapper.setAttribute('href', image.src); wrapper.setAttribute('aria-label', 'Click for Lightbox'); image.parentNode.insertBefore(wrapper, image.parentNode.firstChild); wrapper.appendChild(image); }); refreshFsLightbox(); </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/assets/js/jquery.fitvids.js?v=fb81801967"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/assets/js/index.js?v=fb81801967"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/assets/js/particles.js?v=fb81801967"></script> </body> </html>