5 personal data that you leave on your cell phone and maybe you never noticed

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Every day we leave on our cell phone – many times involuntarily – a series of “digital traces”. They are the so-called “metadata” that account for their routines through numbers. What are they and what do they say about you?

Has it ever occurred to you to think about all the information that your mobile phone has about you?

The cell phone has become our best ally: we take it everywhere, we consult it at all times, we wake up and sleep with it and we use it constantly to communicate with other people. But we are not always aware of the amount of information we share with him.

And it is that within the memory of the cell phone we not only keep our contact list, but also the places we frequent, the music we listen to, the emails and messages we receive, the time we woke up … and much plus!

They are the increasingly popular “metadata”, the “data about the data” that explain details about our communications and that reveal patterns of behavior and daily routines in an inconspicuous way. Read more: The 4 Best Android Tablet For Lovers of Reading and Multimedia Content

These are some of the things that your smartphone “knows” about you and that you have “told” yourself, probably without even realizing it.

The speed at which you walk

The location data of your cell phone tells a detailed story about you. Most smartphones have GPS navigation enabled, thanks to which applications such as Google Maps can resolve questions about how to get from one place to another or where the nearest hospital is. Read more: Best virtual reality glasses

It is, without doubt, a useful system, especially for those whose sense of direction does not work too well. However, geolocation services also allow your device to know the speed at which you move when going from one place to another, either by car or walking …. and some other things.

Where he lives, where he works and what places he frequents.

No need to have your home address on the map of your cell phone; When using the geolocation services on your phone, it leaves metadata with which you can find out your usual place of residence.

And not only that: they also reveal their workplace, the most frequented café or their health center. “Your location history is accessible to anyone who has or can get access to your phone,” they explain from Tactical Technology Collective, an international non-governmental organization for the control of digital traces.

“Apple uses an algorithm or formula that assumes that the location where your phone is usually at night is your ‘home’, and if it stays in another place all day, it must be your workplace.” These traces are useful for companies and entities to know where it is.

“Unless you’ve already deactivated location services or frequent locations, your phone is probably registering your location on the device,” the Tactical Technology Collective website says.

Do you want to check it yourself? Follow these steps on your cell phone: “Settings” -> “Privacy” -> “Location services” . If you have an iPhone that works with iOS7 or a newer version, you can see until you see the mapped locations by selecting ” Frequent locations of system services. ”

The amount of sport you practice and your state of health

If you are one of those who has an application to practice sports on your cell phone – be it running or doing repetitions and exercise routines – maybe you should remember that every time you use it, you are telling your cell phone what your activity level is physical.

The same happens with your health status, which can be extracted from metadata obtained from such apps and others that measure specific things related to the number of hours you sleep, the menstrual cycle or heart rate.

“There’s probably more information about you on your phone than at home,” Apple’s executive director Tim Cook told the ABC News in 2016.

“Our smartphones are full of our intimate conversations, our financial data, our health records, and they are also loaded with the location of our children in many cases,” the businessman added.

How many taxis do you take and how much tip does

When using applications such as Uber and other private transport apps, the frequency with which you use this type of service is recorded on your cell phone. But metadata often comes from external sources.

In 2014, a database was exposed by the Limousines and Taxis Commission of the city of New York that recorded each transfer made in 2013.

These data, according to the research agency Neustar Research, contained information on the origin and destination of each trip, the location and the amount of the tip. And that is just an example.

What time do you wake up and what time do you go to sleep?

Using the cell phone as an alarm clock is a very common custom of the times. In addition, phones are also able to record our sleep hours and monitor them. iOS 10, the penultimate software launched by Apple, is able to detect through the function of the alarm clock the time when you sleep, if you wake up during the night and when you wake up.

These data have been used to create dream maps in the world and can be used for medical purposes. However, they can be used for purposes with darker intentions, such as selling advertising when we are awake at night, and we are more vulnerable to the offers of some companies.

Although, ultimately, it is you who decides the amount of information you share with your cell phone.