Location data for millions of Dutch mobile phones for sale online

The location data for maybe millions of Dutch mobile phones can be purchased online, BNR reports based on its own investigation. The broadcaster received over 80 gigabytes of location data from data traders consisting of the coordinates of millions of phones, often registered dozens of times a day.

In the data, BNR found movements of people with public safety-related functions. For example, the broadcaster followed a senior army officer from his home in the Randstad to various military locations in the country, including the headquarters of the military intelligence service MIVD. The soldier confirmed to BNR that the data was correct.

Up to 1,200 phones in the dataset visited the Zoetermeer office where the National Police, Public Prosecution Service, and Europol are located. Some 70 visited the King’s residential palace, Huis ten Bosch. And up to 370 visited the Volkel Air Base, a storage point for nuclear weapons.

The broadcaster asked two experts to look at the data set. Ralph Moonen, the technical director of Secura, called it “an extreme security risk with possible implications for national security.” Sjoerd van der Meulen, a cybersecurity specialist at DataExpert, said it was “really shocking that this can happen like this.”

BNR bought access to the data through an online marketplace in Berlin - Datatrade.ai - which put it in touch with two providers - Datastream Group from Florida and Factori.ai from Singapore. According to the broadcaster, you can get subscription-based access to Dutch location data from both companies for prices starting from 2,000 dollars per month. For more, you can get fresh data every 24 hours.