Update: I tracked my own phone's location data for a month and the map showed me at a park I've never visited.

I used a free app called 'Location Tracker' to see where my phone thought I was, and the log had me at Riverside Park for two hours on a Tuesday afternoon when I was at work. Is this just a cell tower glitch or something more, like data being mixed up between devices?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordancarr22d ago

Honestly, have you checked if that park has a public Wi-Fi network? Your phone might have briefly connected to it from a distance, just enough to log the location. Those free apps can be really sloppy with their data sources. It's not always cell towers, sometimes it grabs the nearest Wi-Fi spot and calls it a day. Makes you wonder how accurate any of this tracking really is, right? I'd bet it's a data mix-up and you were just near a hotspot with a park-related name.

maxf3322d ago

Hey @jordancarr, I read an article that said phones can ping wifi networks even if you don't connect. Could that be what happened? Makes you question the whole location system, doesn't it?

adams.uma22d ago

Yeah, that "sloppy with their data sources" thing is spot on. I'd just delete that app's cache and see if it happens again.