Meet the guy who taught US intelligence agencies how to make the most of the ad tech ecosystem, 'the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man.'
A popular dating and hookup app, Grindr relied on the GPS capabilities of modern smartphones to connect potential partners in the same city, neighborhood, or even building. The app can show how far away a potential partner is in real time, down to the foot. In its 10 years of operation, Grindr had amassed millions of users and become a central cog in gay culture around the globe.
From a commercial data broker called UberMedia, PlanetRisk had obtained location data on Aleppo—the besieged Syrian city that had been at the center of some of the fiercest fighting between government forces and US-backed rebels. It was an experiment in understanding what was possible. Could you even obtain location information on mobile phones in Syria? Surely a war zone was no hot spot for mobile advertising. But to the company’s surprise, the answer was yes.
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