Jeremy Wood introduced readers to his method "for tracking cellphones to generate useful demographically-keyed data on the movement of people, without compromising anyone's privacy" back in 2009. Today his patent was granted; it's number 8185131. Will applications that use this methodology be more attractive to potential users? Will the data collected be valuable to marketers and others?
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by Adena Schutzberg on 05/22 at 03:00 AM |
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The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that police must obtain a search warrant prior to before attaching a global positioning system (GPS) device to a suspect's car. According to the Journal, "The government argued that attaching the tiny device to a car's undercarriage was too trivial a violation of property rights to matter." Also according to the Journal, "The decision upholds a federal appeals court in Washington, which voided a drug conviction because police obtained evidence by using the GPS tracker to follow the suspect's movements without a valid warrant."
According to the New York Times, "That ruling avoided many difficult questions, including how to treat information gathered from devices installed by the manufacturer and how to treat information held by third parties like cellphone companies." The Times also reported that, "Though the ruling was limited to physical intrusions, the opinions in the case collectively suggested that a majority of the justices are prepared to apply broad Fourth Amendment privacy principles unrelated to such intrusions to an array of modern technologies, including video surveillance in public places, automatic toll collection systems on highways, devices that allow motorists to signal for roadside assistance and records kept by online merchants."
Writing in a majority opinion and reported by the Times, Justice Antonin Scalia said, "We hold that the government’s installation of a G.P.S. device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search.'"
by Joe Francica on 01/23 at 02:12 PM |
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The latest startup, two year old Euclid Elements wants to provide real world info to brick and mortar stores akin to the analytics available for websites (who visited, for how long, what did they buy....). How? By putting in a sensor that captures unique wi-fi-based info from pedestrians. The phone must have wi-fi and it must be on for you to be tracked. But, don't be afraid, all the data is anonymized and you can opt out on the company website. (I opt out by not turning on wi-fi, done!)
The data, including how many people passed by, how many came in, for how long can help partners, like launch partner Philz Coffee, determine tactics to draw in people or sell food to those wh are staying for 45 minutes around say, lunch time... Launched in 2009 with $500,000, the company just got in first round funding of $5.8 million, which was led by New Enterprise Associates with Triple Point Capital and Harrison Metal.
- C|net
by Adena Schutzberg on 11/04 at 03:00 AM |
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HipGeo lets users record their world with the app then share their trips and stories with its "HipGeo Player" that provides a dynamic recap of places, routes and photos in animated displays.
That's from the press release. The big differentiator? Collects data passively and can sent it to various social networks to specifically selected groups using minimal batter power. I'm not digging the name...
- press release
Foursquare is rolling out a new privacy setting this week that enables the user to designate a Foursquare locale as a private residence by selecting “Home” as the venue’s primary category. That way it's only visible to friends, not everyone. And, you can edit or delete the "home" entry. As Mashable notes, and this was my first thought: a bit late, eh?
- Mashable
OnStar’s latest T&C has some very unsettling updates to it, which include selling your personal GPS location information, speed, safety belt usage, and other information to third parties, including law enforcement. To add insult to a slap in the face, the company insists they will continue collecting and selling this personal information even after you cancel your service, unless you specifically shut down the data connection to the vehicle after canceling.
- John Zdziarski's Domain via @timoreilly
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/22 at 03:00 AM |
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The proposed class action, filed in a Seattle federal court yesterday, argues Microsoft intentionally designed the camera software on Windows Phone 7 to ignore default "don't track me" settings. The suit cites Microsoft letters to Congress claiming it does not track without consent.
- Reuters via @jeffharrison
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/01 at 04:46 AM |
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