Apple recently released Loopt 2.0, which added in other location-based services to the social networking site. A new emphasis of the service is on places and events, providing ads and coupons for nearby businesses, events, and stores. Ratings from both Zagat and other Loopt users appear with the location, and directions, phone number, and web link are easily accessible. Loopt 2.0 also includes an "always-on location sharing feature," which it negotiated with AT&T.
Technology Worries
This technology perfectly demonstrates many of the location-based services I had referred to as a "future" or "coming" development. Now those technologies are here, and it is interesting to think about their effects:
"NAVTEQ LocationPoint™ Advertising enables Loopt to provide highly targeted and relevant offers and promotions in a mobile environment when and where consumers are making shopping and purchasing decisions. " Here we have location-based advertising, allowing retailers to target nearby shoppers and influence them at the moment of purchase. This is admittedly beneficial for both sides, however Loopt therefore collects, maintains, and uses your location information in order to provide these new services. Even when the application isn't actively open and running, Loopt can continue collecting and tracking locational data, though it will not be displayed to friends unless you specifically ask it to.
One way that Loopt tries to protect privacy is by maintaining "for its use only each User's most recent location fix." This is it's effort to try and prevent the aggregating of data that can be used to plot trends and therefore infer a variety of things.
Related to the advertising effort, "Loopt discloses some personally identifiable, registration, profile, or location information to subsidiaries, affiliated companies, or other businesses or persons to: (a) provide certain features; (b) serve relevant advertisements in support of the Loopt Services; and (c) process such information on our behalf." While Loopt itself might not store the data, what is to say that these subsidiaries aren't tracking and aggregating the data? Users have no contract with these other companies, and therefore have no control. To help prevent malicious uses, Loopt mandates that these partners agree to "use appropriate confidentiality and security measures" and also try and limit their use of the data. By controlling their own use of the data as well as the subsidiaries' uses, Loopt attempts to protect their customers, but with debatable results.
Unfortunately, drawing on our reading of Blown to Bits, where data was able to be re-identified given only a few characteristics, "Loopt discloses aggregate, anonymous log file and usage information in reports to interested third parties to assist those parties in understanding the usage patterns and perfomance results of certain advertisements, content, services, promotions, or features." This is unfortunate if enough information is included for the data to be re-identified, because it jeopardizes the user's privacy and freedom.
Given these privacy worries, users should be cautious of their use of Loopt 2.0, seriously considering if the privacy concerns that Loopt only partially mitigates are worth the service of providing easily accessible information.
Sources:
http://www.macworld.com/article/143878/2009/11/loopt_2.html
http://www.loopt.com/pressreleases/loopt-unveils-major-update-that-unites-mobile-social-and-local-discovery
http://www.loopt.com/about/privacy-security
https://app.loopt.com/loopt/privacyNotice.aspx
I really liked the writing style and layout of this post. It was concise and easy to distinguish key points.
ReplyDeleteI've never managed to evoke any desire to use any of these location-based social tools described in this blog... I feel so out of the loop. Ha, punny.
But I may have touched on something. I don't know anyone who uses any of the variety of location-based tools out there... how widespread is their use? Is it more of a novelty item rather than a mainstream tool? How many people really want to be tracked? But perhaps this is a rising trend that people like me have not caught on to yet, or perhaps I am in the wrong age group.
When, if, these tools do hit mainstream audiences, I can see the privacy concerns mentioned in this post becoming an issue.
I think you brought up very good points about the risk of re-identification. Whenever data aggregators attempt to extract personal information, they assure us that data will be anonymous and secure. But I don’t think these guarantees are necessarily absolute and trustworthy.
ReplyDeleteI also don’t think the risk to privacy is necessarily attributed to the technology itself. I think what is problematic is the proliferation of commercial interest. The majority of data aggregation occurs for advertising and commercial purposes, and it is almost impossible not to sacrifice privacy when we wish to take full advantage of technology nowadays. Granted that providing information makes service cheaper and convenient, I think businesses take our information in an essentially intrusive and nonconsensual manner. Without some kind of regulation on data aggregation for business interests, loss of privacy almost seems unavoidable.