Powell faces scrutiny over use of location data collection tool without internal privacy policies
Powell faces scrutiny over use of location data collection tool without internal privacy policies
Publish Date: 2026-04-03 18:49:00
Source Domain: www.10tv.com
Powell’s use of Placer.ai to track phone data raises privacy concerns, as the city lacks internal policies regarding data usage and defers to the vendor’s terms.
POWELL, Ohio — When you drive into the City of Powell, you may not notice anything unusual. But your cell phone does — and so does the city.
Powell has contracted with a data analytics company called Placer.ai to harvest location data collected from apps on your phone. You likely never knew it was happening.
“I did not know that. It’s kind of scary,” said 19-year-old Powell shopper Grace Hammett.
Placer.ai doesn’t need your direct consent — because you have already given it. When you install and grant permissions to apps like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Amazon, eBay or Shopify, you agree to let those apps collect and share your location data. That data is then sold to brokers and, eventually, to platforms like Placer.ai.
Before Placer.ai sees the data, the original app or broker is supposed to strip direct identifiers like your name and phone number.
Sean Hughes, who oversees the program for Powell, says the city uses these digital breadcrumbs to better understand who is visiting and where they spend their time.
“I can’t tell who you are in any possible way — it’s totally scrubbed information,” Hughes said.
But how scrubbed is it? The data can reveal demographic information including gender, age, ZIP code, median household income, education levels and movement patterns, such as where someone walked or parked. The city says it will not know your home address.
“We can show a general area — we don’t show a specific pinpoint,”…
