Location-based digital traces - the safety dilemma for women

Location-based digital traces may be intentionally stated locations on social media posts or unintentionally logged locations while messaging, using navigational software, connection to your mobile service provider, internet IP or Bluetooth. This information is often sold to third parties and swapped between apps in a legal manner.

But how can this affect women's safety in a positive or negative way?

Even though the gender gap and legal discrimination of women has been reduced over time, violence against women by both, partners and strangers, remains a global social issue according to the WHO report and reviews of travel experiences. As the life of people moves online, criminal activity follows suit. Accordingly, women are more vulnerable if their spatial data is shared online.

At the highest risk of sexual harassment are young women between the age of 11-17 years, according to the US statistics in 2015. Numbers vary between countries, however, the underlying issue remains the same. This age group has been growing up experiencing smart phones and social media as a part of everyday life. Parents that never or rarely use social media, neglect the threat of traceable locations if their daughters use apps while automatic location tagging is enabled.

Besides intentionally sharing a location via social media, the location of a digital device can be extracted via triangulation without extensive IT knowledge. Correspondingly, this can be used to determine home, school and work address as well as locations of leisure activities. Every app which has a function to show "people nearby" (e.g. dating apps, Facebook, Telegram) can be misused for this cause.

The concept of triangulation which has been tested on the dating app Tinder in 2014 by Max Veytsman, an expert for application security.

On the other hand, the use of location-based apps can improve safety. Online maps such as Google maps, Waze or MapQuest support navigation through unknown places and prevent getting lost. Furthermore, apps intentionally include safety features. Uber's tracking and emergency features outcompetes the safety of regular Taxi services. A chosen guardian contact can be automatically informed about the progress of your trip. Furthermore, an emergency button can share your location to the Uber emergency service at any time. The automatic emergency call, including sharing your location, has been adopted by several apps and smartphone operation systems. However, it depends on your country if your location will be automatically transferred to the ambulance or police.

Location-based data can increase or decrease women's safety. The pivotal factor is the awareness and the proper use of its functionality. In a study by Furini and Tamanini in 2015, it was shown that 29% of women had no idea about the GPS availability of their smartphone, compared to 15% of men. However, if women were aware of the GPS availability, only 37% kept it on, compared to 61% of men. In our relatively new digital society, it is important that the consequences of location-based data collection is taught to its users but especially to children and young adults.

If you want to learn more about data safety for yourself and your children, this homepage will give you worksheets in any language: Data Detox Kit.

Do you have more tips and experiences you want to share?

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