So we know that particular young man returned home to Ohio, but what about the others who were soaking up the sun and partying on the beach? Data visualization company Tectonix, in partnership with X-Mode Social, can tell you where they ended up. How? By using personally identifiable information (PII) that is apparently being sold by third party apps installed on your phone and/or sold by the mobile phone companies themselves.

Let’s see how Tectonix used this data to show the way these spring break party-goers spread out across the east coast, the midwest, and the southern states. Watch:

x Want to see the true potential impact of ignoring social distancing? Through a partnership with @xmodesocial, we analyzed secondary locations of anonymized mobile devices that were active at a single Ft. Lauderdale beach during spring break. This is where they went across the US: pic.twitter.com/3A3ePn9Vin Ã¢ÂÂ Tectonix GEO (@TectonixGEO) March 25, 2020

I warned you that data would be terrifying. Not only can we see that these folks, some of whom very likely carried the disease with them, traveled along our interstates and through our airports to return home—you can see just how much of your location data is being tracked and sold worldwide.

While Tectonix and X-Mode Social claim in their tweet that the data is anonymized, Brian McClendon, a former Google VP who is an expert in geospatial data visualization applications, says no way: “There is no such thing as anonymized location data that includes timestamps and histories, so this PII was shared with multiple companies.”

If you are concerned about your data being sold (and you should be), there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself. The New York Times published an article in December 2019 on how to protect your phone. The most important first step is to stop sharing your location with apps.

In the meantime, wash your hands, stay home, and avoid making any unnecessary trips.

[Daily Kos community member AKALib wrote about this yesterday. See their post here for more discussion.]