dessalles

Hot on the heels of my post about Phorm, a company that’s partnered with ISPs to record every website a person visits, Adam Greenfield points us to Path Intelligence, a real-world counterpart to internet tracking. In short, Path Intelligence installs devices in shopping malls which triangulate mobile phones in order track the exact location and movement of shoppers. This “FootPath™” data is then used by mall and business owners to identify logistical faults and marketing opportunities: What areas are generating congestion? What stores do shoppers who frequent one store also regularly visit? What stores see more traffic on rainy days?

Looking at a demo of the Path Inelligence UI, I’m reminded of the heatmaps videogame developer Bungie produces with data gathered from online play of Halo 3. The heatmaps, which visualize the locations of kills and deaths by specific weapon types, are used by level designers to ensure playing fields are well balanced and kills are evenly distributed across the terrain (Does a map bias a certain weapon type? Does map asymmetry give one team an advantage?). What’s more interesting is that Bungie produces a heatmap of every players’ indivdual kills and deaths, and that data has proven to be an excellent strategic resource more serious competitors (Am I more accurate with the sniper rifle when firing from the tower or up on the hill? Should I be using the shotgun or rifle in narrow corridors?). But I digress…

[Sniper Rifle kills on Last Resort]

In his post, Greenfield presents two concerns with Path Intelligence:

In this case, information gathered from you without your knowledge (let alone your consent) is being used to build models of behavior from which real financial value can be derived. Do you participate in enjoyment of that value? You do not. […]

That’s only one of my concerns, and at that, probably the less important one. The other and greater is that given enough data, these traces can be tied to individuals with relative ease.

Whenever the issue of location tracking and privacy comes up, I always find myself retelling the story of being falsely accused of fare evasion by a plain-clothed police officer who’d been staking out the entrance to the 34th St subway station. After being handed a fairly heft fine, it didn’t take much effort to call the MTA and request a log of my Metrocard usage, which showed that my card had indeed been swiped at the station seconds before the ticket was issued. A loose argument, but enough of a hassle to keep the officer from pursuing the charge any further. And amazingly, the entire ordeal was handled through post. That was in 2000…8 years ago.

What both the Halo 3 heatmaps and Metrocard logs have in common is that in order for them to be of substantial value to players/commuters, they need to be directly tied to an identity. However, in the case of FootPath, privacy concerns such as Greenfield’s are what drive Path Intelligence to take every measure in ensuring the collected data can’t be associated back to a an individual. According to their privacy policy:

In developing FootPath™ we have ensured that you cannot, at any time, be personally identified as a result of your travel through premises in which FootPath™ operates.

FootPath™ receives only a regularly changing, random number which contains no personal information. As we do not access this information in real time, or divulge this information to any third parties, it is not practicably possible for you to be indentified by the operation of FootPath™.

However, it’s that anonymity that will prevent us from discovering the value of that data when a situation for its use presents itself. Though it was by no means a surprise, I had never considered whether or not the MTA tracked my use of the subway system until I found myself thinking “if only there were an easy way to prove I had swiped my Metrocard at 8:35am”. Now granted, that’s an edge case; but the point is that just because we can’t presently think of any consumer uses for Path Intelligence’s tracking doesn’t mean we won’t someday find it extremely valuable (for now they should think about offering shoppers free food in exchange for the marketing data, a la the ad-supported coffee shop).

I don’t mean to imply privacy shouldn’t be a concern. We’re transitioning into a technological era where even our passive interactions with spaces and institutions will be geotagged and recorded without our knowledge. That’s a bit scary. So, if I’ve got to choose a side, I’m backing the privacy activists on this one. It’s not long before this technology is extended to track more granular activities. How soon before stores consider recording which products I pick up off the shelf but decline to purchase? While it’s easy to argue online stores like Amazon are already effectively doing this (jus virtually), it’s important to remember I can turn off my computer if I feel annoyed or threatened. On the other hand, I can’t exactly turn off reality.