Chapter 18 Exercises

Exercise 18.1 — Your Own Google Takeout (Individual)

Estimated time: 60–90 minutes (plus 24 hours waiting for the archive) Note: This exercise requires a Google account. Students who do not use Google may substitute an equivalent exercise using Apple's "Download your data" feature, or may analyze a sample dataset provided by the instructor.

Instructions:

Part A — Request your data: 1. Go to takeout.google.com and sign in to your Google account. 2. Select "Deselect all" and then specifically select: Location History, Search History, YouTube History, and Chrome History. 3. Request the archive. It will typically be delivered within a few hours to 24 hours.

Part B — Analyze the location history: When your archive arrives, navigate to the Location History folder and use Google Maps' Timeline feature or the Google Takeout viewer to explore your location history.

Write a 500-word reflection addressing:

a. What is the oldest location record in your archive? What were you doing that day, as best you can remember?

b. Identify three places in your location history whose presence in a corporate database you find most uncomfortable. For each, explain why: what could be inferred from this location? Who would you not want to know you went there?

c. Does your location history reveal any information about your political, religious, medical, or intimate life that you had not consciously "disclosed" to Google?

d. If this location history were provided to your employer, to a government agency, or to a family member, what could they learn about you that you would prefer they not know?

e. Does this exercise change how you think about your smartphone usage? If so, how?

Debrief discussion: Your instructor will provide a structured class discussion of this exercise. You will not be asked to share specific personal information — only general reflections on what the exercise revealed.

Exercise 18.2 — App Permission Audit (Individual)

Estimated time: 45 minutes

Instructions:

Conduct a full audit of location and sensitive permissions on your smartphone.

On iPhone (iOS): Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services: review all apps with location access Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone: review all apps with microphone access Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera: review all apps with camera access

On Android: Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager: review by permission type

For each app you find with location, microphone, or camera access:

a. Record the app name, the permission type, and the access level ("Always," "While Using," "Ask Each Time," or "Never").

b. Ask yourself: does this app need this permission for its core function? If I revoked this permission, would the app still work for what I use it for?

c. If the answer to (b) is "no" or "probably not," revoke the permission.

After completing the audit:

• How many apps had location access that you did not consciously grant or would not have granted if asked?
• Did any permission grants surprise you (apps with permissions that seemed unrelated to their function)?
• How many permissions did you revoke?

Write a 200-word reflection: What does your audit reveal about how app permissions accumulate over time? What friction (inconvenience, loss of features) did you encounter when revoking permissions?

Exercise 18.3 — Metadata Analysis (Small Group or Individual)

Estimated time: 45–60 minutes

The Metadata Scenario:

You are a researcher who has obtained the following metadata for a single individual's phone for one week (fictional scenario — all details invented):

Questions:

a. Without knowing the content of any call or message, what can you infer about this person's weekly routine?

b. Cell Tower A covers an area including a hospital, a medical clinic, and a legal aid office. What inferences — none of which may be correct, but all of which the metadata suggests — might a data analyst draw about why this person is frequently in Tower A's coverage area on weekday mornings?

c. Cell Tower D covers the city's historically religious neighborhood, including three synagogues, a mosque, and two churches. What does the Saturday and Sunday presence suggest? What are the limits of this inference?

d. The 45-minute Tuesday evening call from Tower C's residential area involves a new contact not present in other weeks' data. What might this suggest? What might it not suggest?

e. Stewart Baker (former NSA general counsel) said "metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody's life." Evaluate this claim using your analysis of the table above. What does the metadata tell you? What doesn't it tell you?

Exercise 18.4 — Location Broker Research and Opt-Out (Individual)

Estimated time: 60–90 minutes

Part A — Research:

Research one of the following location data brokers. Find and read any publicly available information about: - What data the company collects and from what sources - Who the company's clients include (commercial, government) - Any news coverage of the company's practices - The company's privacy policy and opt-out procedures

Brokers: - SafeGraph (or its successor Veraset) - X-Mode / Outlogic - LiveRamp - Foursquare (Pilgrim SDK) - Acxiom

Part B — Attempt opt-out:

Attempt to opt out of data collection by the broker you researched. Document: - Whether the broker offers an opt-out mechanism - Where on the website the opt-out is located (and how many clicks it takes to find) - What information is required to submit an opt-out - What confirmation, if any, you receive - Whether the opt-out applies to data already collected or only to future collection

Write a 400-word analysis: - What does the opt-out process (or its absence) reveal about whether these companies treat privacy as a genuine value or a compliance exercise? - Is opt-out as a privacy framework adequate for the location data broker ecosystem? If not, what would an adequate framework look like?

Exercise 18.5 — The "Nothing to Hide" Challenge (Debate Format)

Estimated time: 50 minutes (preparation + debate) This is a structured class debate exercise.

The claim: "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear from location tracking."

Setup: - One group argues FOR the claim (or the strongest version of it). - One group argues AGAINST the claim. - A third group serves as judges.

Preparation (15 minutes):

FOR group: Draw on the following considerations: criminals and terrorists benefit from location privacy; innocent people have no reason to object to location tracking that might help solve crimes; transparency of behavior builds trust in institutions; people already share their location voluntarily on social media.

AGAINST group: Draw on the following considerations from the chapter: the chilling effect on legal behavior; sensitive location visits (medical, religious, political); re-identification of "anonymous" data; law enforcement over-breadth in geofence warrants; data broker sales to unknown third parties; future uses of currently collected data.

Debate (25 minutes): Each side makes an opening statement (5 min), responds to the other side (5 min each), and makes a closing argument (3 min each).

Judges' evaluation (10 minutes): The judges evaluate which side made the stronger case and specifically: Did the FOR side adequately address the chilling effect argument? Did the AGAINST side adequately address cases where location tracking has clear public benefit?

Post-debate reflection: Each student writes a 150-word personal reflection: Where do you actually stand on this question, and did the debate change your position?