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PRETEND

BONUS: The Digital Trail to Epstein’s Island

PRETEND

Javier Leiva

True Crime, Society & Culture, Technology

4.72.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if your phone could place you at the scene of a crime—years later? In this bonus episode of PRETEND, we uncover how nearly 200 mobile devices that visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island left behind invisible data trails. Using just a free trial from a location data broker, an outsider was able to map those devices back to homes, offices, and even gated communities across the U.S. This episode dives into how mobile advertising IDs—those “anonymous” trackers buried inside your apps—are being used to surveil people without their knowledge. It’s not just Epstein’s guests. Similar tactics were used to target abortion clinic visitors in Wisconsin… and the law hasn’t kept up. Sources and Further Reading: WIRED: Location Data From Phones Used to Track Epstein Island Visitors https://www.wired.com/video/watch/we-tracked-every-visitor-to-epstein-island Motherboard (VICE): A Data Broker Was Selling Location Data on People Who Visited Abortion Clinics https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/02/meet-abortion-bans-new-best-friend-your-phone/ EPIC.org: Data Broker Helped Anti-Abortion Group Target Planned Parenthood Visitors https://epic.org/data-broker-helped-anti-abortion-group-target-planned-parenthood-visitors-wyden-letter-reveals/ U.S. Congress: American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Data_Privacy_and_Protection_Act Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Creative Babble

0:03.0

Some people think investing is a test of endurance.

0:10.0

But when you invest £100,000 or more with HSBC UK, you have access to our network of advisors, who will make it feel less like a marathon you haven't trained for, and more like 5K that's just your speed because investing isn't a struggle when we're here to help search

0:24.9

HSBC financial advice HSBC UK opening up a world of opportunity capital at risk HSBC UK current

0:31.7

account holders only £100,000 investments or savings required for the advice service, eligibility and feeds apply.

0:48.0

I'm sure this has happened to you where you're out there with your friends and you're having a conversation about a very specific product.

0:51.6

And somehow that product's ad gets on your social feeds, on websites.

0:57.1

It's almost like they're listening to you or maybe even tracking you.

1:01.9

Well, the answer is that they are because every phone and every app has what's known as a mobile

1:08.5

advertising ID.

1:09.5

And it's a long string of letters and numbers

1:12.1

unique to your device.

1:13.4

Of course, it's not tied to your name,

1:16.2

at least not directly.

1:17.7

And that's what technically makes it anonymous.

1:20.3

So every time you open up that weather app,

1:22.7

that app is sending your exact location.

1:25.2

I'm not talking about zip code,

1:26.4

your exact GPS coordinates, up to the cloud,

1:29.6

and then that data is handed over to an ad broker. Then that ad broker packages up all your data

1:35.8

and sells it to marketers, and it's perfectly legal. And here's the thing. It's not just for marketers.

1:42.5

Anybody with the right budget can get a hold of this data.

...

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