There is no known effective method to anonymize location data

Evidence

Princeton computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Edward Felten summed it up this way: “There is no known effective method to anonymize location data, and no evidence that it’s meaningfully achievable.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 767

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: is this claim still accurate, and did any post-2013 schemes partially solve location anonymity?
• XREF: connects to: Supposedly anonymized location data can identify individuals’ home addresses — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 543; Anonymous meta-data can be reliably de-anonymized with only three public data points — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 765; Location and phone-sensor data reveal individuals and moods even when anonymized — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 766

Broader Connections

• Location and phone-sensor data reveal individuals and moods even when anonymized #corroborates (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 766