Databases. Internet. Zagat. Amazon Patent’s Privacy Pratfall. Against a backdrop of years of vigilance in protecting consumer privacy, a newly public Amazon Patent application raises a wide range of privacy concerns. The Patent Pending envisions making gift recommendations to strangers, leveraging Amazon's legendary database of consumer data. It speaks of using third-party databases, in addition to its own, to suggest gift ideas for--in an example the Patent Pending actually uses--"single Protestant Asian women between the ages of 25 and 35 with disposable incomes greater than $50,000.
" And because Amazon's new invention would make specific gift recommendations for anyone who asked, it raises the question of how easily crooks could go on private-data fishing expeditions, trying one gift after another to uncover personal details about their targets. The system the Patent application describes represents a sharp departure from Amazon's previous approach of employing only user-approved data for gift recommendations. Publications Google Settles Buzz Class-Action Privacy Suit 09/08/2010. Best Buy Rolls Out Shopkick’s Geo-Coupon System To 257 Stores.
Best Buy is rolling out an in-store mobile couponing system in conjunction with a startup called shopkick. The system will be in place in 187 stores by tomorrow and 257 stores by October 1. Earlier this month, we got a preview of how the system works (see video below). Instead of checking in, as you would with a geo app like Foursquare or Gowalla, shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with the shopkick app on their phone walks into a store. As MG wrote at the time: The minute you enter a Best Buy location, your phone recognizes it and you get points and a message that there are deals available at this location.
A Private, Anti-Foursquare To Geo-Fence Those Neer To You. If you are going to launch a new location app, creating an anti-Foursquare is probably not a bad idea. About a week ago, a Qualcomm-incubated project called Neer quietly launched on the Android market, and has been downloaded more than 10,000 times since then. Neer is a free, location-sharing app designed for private sharing between family members and people with close, real-world relationships. An iPhone app and Web interface are also in the works. Instead of implicitly checking into different spots like you do with Foursquare and Gowalla, or broadcasting everywhere you go in the background like you do with Google Latitude, Neer creates geo-fences that trigger location updates to your inner circle.
As I explained in a post last May: Somewhere in between the concept of the explicit check-in and constant geo-tracking is the notion of geo-fences. With Neer, you create a geo-fence around certain places like home, work, or school simply by marking them on your phone when you are there. Are you worried about geolocation privacy? (poll) Geolocation services--mobile applications that allow users to share their physical whereabouts with their networks--are gaining momentum. This week, Foursquare said it hit 100 million check-ins, with nearly 1 million "check-ins" per day. Earlier this year, Twitter added its own geotagging feature and now Facebook is reportedly working on its own .
But as these services gain speed, so too, it appears, do user privacy fears--at least according to a survey conducted by Webroot, a maker of antivirus and antispyware software. Given the nature of Webroot's business, the company does have a vested interest in the topic. Nonetheless, the survey results are worth noting. Remember in February, when a site called Please Rob Me launched to expose the privacy flaws of social media? The Webroot survey revealed that 29 percent of users knowingly share their location with the public, while the rest keep it within their private network. On Locational Privacy, and How to Avoid Losing it Forever.
August 2009 By Andrew J. Blumberg and Peter Eckersley, August 2009 Over the next decade, systems which create and store digital records of people's movements through public space will be woven inextricably into the fabric of everyday life. We are already starting to see such systems now, and there will be many more in the near future.
Here are some examples you might already have used or read about: Monthly transit swipe-cards Electronic tolling devices (FastTrak, EZpass, congestion pricing) Cellphones Services telling you when your friends are nearby Searches on your PDA for services and businesses near your current location Free Wi-Fi with ads for businesses near the network access point you're using Electronic swipe cards for doors Parking meters you can call to add money to, and which send you a text message when your time is running out Unfortunately, these systems pose a dramatic threat to locational privacy. What is "locational privacy"? Did you go to an anti-war rally on Tuesday? Loopt 3.0 knows where you are - and tells everyone - Jun. 29, 2010.
Thanks to the iPhone 4's multitasking ability, Loopt 3.0 allows users to update their locations automatically as they move around.By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporterJune 29, 2010: 3:51 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The stakes just got raised in the fight to dominate the hottest corner of the mobile apps market. Last week's iPhone update added a key piece of missing functionality to the wildly popular smart phone: It can now run third-party applications as a background process.
That multitasking ability opens up a world of options for app developers in the burgeoning field of location-based social networking. Loopt, a geotagging app with 3 million users, raced out a new version that allows users to update their locations automatically as they move around. It's a change from rivals like Foursquare and Gowalla, which require users to manually check-in as they visit places.
"This is absolutely the future of mobile," says Sam Altman, chief executive of Mountain View, Calif. -based Loopt.