Monday, August 25. 2008

Location Privacy: Are you over it yet?

Seems like we don't hear much anymore about location privacy. In an op-ed piece today in the Wall Street Journal, L. Gordon Crovitz thinks we "got over" the concerns we had about many privacy issues. He cited several areas of privacy concerns that seemed to have vanished. For example, he cites an AOL study in Britain that found that 84% of people said they would not reveal personal income information online but that 89% of them willingly did. He provided a litany of other examples such as the fact that Amazon "closely records our choices of books" and that Google "scans emails to deliver relevant ads" as well as electronic tolls that record our location.

These digital examples ignore some of basic things that have always been around. Your name and address, for most of us, are in the phone book. If you gave out your business card, we know where you work too. Adding in the digital information such as profiles on LinkedIn or Facebook, you have probably listed your place of business, past associations, clubs, etc. So for about 90% of your day, just about anyone can find where you are. If we add in your travel time, your location is likely recognized by your cell phone. If you have a "friend finder" application...game over...we know where you are.

So, let's not offer faux concern over Internet privacy when we so willingly give and want people to see some of our private lives. And let's not cower behind the pretense of total location privacy when we desparately want the most accurate GPS-enabled mobile device. Can you say, "location-based advertising..."anyone, anyone? We let our guard down so easily and the online and mobile tools are there begging us to do so.

Crovitz cites Lawrence Friedman's book, "Guarding Life's Dark Secrets," and wraps up his editorial quoting Friedman who says, "If the nineteenth century was a world of privacy and prudery...then the twenty-first century is the world of the one-way mirror, the world of the all-seeing eye."

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These digital examples ignore some of basic things that have always been around. Your name and address, for most of us, are in the phone book. If you gave out your business card, we know where you work too. Adding in the digital information such as profiles on LinkedIn or Facebook, you have probably listed your place of business, past associations, clubs, etc.

#1 Ahmad (Link) on 2008-08-26 07:39 (Reply)

Location Privacy still exists. While you are right that other privacy concerns have dwindled, location privacy is different. It comes down to primal fears. There is a spectrum of fear, and a parallel spectrum of response. At one end of the spectrum is the fear of someone spamming you, or prank calling. Towards the other end of the spectrum is identity theft. And at the very end of the spectrum is threat that someone will find you and hurt you. So the responses are equal to the threat. While I’m pretty comfortable about my phone number being on my email signature, I’m pretty sure I tell only my close friends that I’ll be walking home from the big poker game on Friday night with a fist full of hundreds down a back alley.
I’m not trying to be a fear monger. The risks are real, and hence the proper controls are required. Even if consumers fail to realise the risks…one incident can change all that.

michaelimbleau@yahoo.com

#2 Michael Imbleau on 2008-08-26 08:32 (Reply)

I'd like my phone or GPS to tell me where I am located, and not, unless I authorize it, tell someone else.

My home and my office provide a basic level of security through law and physical protection even if the addresses are public.

Sure, personal control will affect the business model of some LBS, but they have to give me a compelling reason to want otherwise.

#3 RF on 2008-08-26 09:56 (Reply)

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