Wall Street is making money off of our smartphone location data. Thasos Group recently captured user location data around Tesla’s headquarters, created a map of it, and sold it to its hedge fund clients (via Wall Street Journal).
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the car manufacturer would “work around the clock” to boost production of its Model 3. Data analysts from Thasos Group decided to experiment.
The group, which leases databases that contain trillions of geographic coordinates collected by smartphone apps, had its computers collect location data at Tesla’s factory. After sharing the data with hedge fund clients, the data showed a 30% increase of overnight shift workers from June to October.
Wall Street was surprised last week when Tesla disclosed a quarter profit, which is rare for the company. This was the result of the Model 3 production, which doubled in those three months. Tesla shares increased to 9..1% the day after the announcement.