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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… continue reading »

Over the last month or so, Phorm has faced quite a bit of scrutiny. The London-based company has partnered with a number of major British ISPs (British Telecom, Virgin Media and Talk Talk) to track the websites people visit in order to serve more precisely targeted ads. Of course, the digital privacy sirens were sounded full blast at first mention of this joint venture. Phorm argues their “technology doesn’t store any personally identifiable information or IP addresses”. Their site explains that a “random number” is assigned to each user and it’s impossible to connect that number back to a person’s identity. But we all know what happened to No. 4417749. If AOL’s fiasco taught us anything, it’s that the information being associated with these random numbers can frequently contain more information about an identity than the information being concealed by the random number in the first place.

Similar to the Phorm/BT partnership, Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable operator in the US, announced this week that they’ll be tracking every site their customers visit and selling that data to ad-placement company NebuAd. What I think people find so objectionable with Phorm and NebuAd is they don’t seem to be offering anything of much value back to the consumer. If they were somehow enabling free/cheaper internet access (a la NetZero of the late-90s) or offering any sort of service of value that’s not strictly ad related, it might be a completely different story. But all they seem to be doing is introducing a privacy risk for what will most likely amount to a negligible increase in advertising relevance.

Anyhow, more interestingly, it’s time for me to ask my favorite question: What changes once a handful of ISPs begin tracking everything people look at online, when everything is recorded? The first behavioral response to Phorm’s technology has appeared in the form of software called AntiPhormLite… continue reading »

Sifting through SXSW panel notes…

The Supercollider: A Hero of the Social Network set out to understand what influence the well-connected have on the formation and usage of social web services. The intended conversation about “Supercolliders” wasn’t particularly interesting, but panelists Ben Cerveny and Matt Jones did drive a more compelling sub-plot about flow-based social networking. While neither attempted an explicit classification, both seemed to paint an impression of two types of social apps: The first class being services where the distribution of information is informed by pre-defined relationships – you receive photos I uploaded because we had previously declared each other as friends. And the second class of services are ones where the flow of information is what defines relationships – we are friends because we regularly send each other photos we’ve uploaded. The general consensus of the panelists was that the first, more “traditional”, model is proving increasingly ill-suited to support the activities of these extra-social, collision-prone users. Jen Bekman, qualifying herself as a Supercollider, described her network fatigue as a consequence of the inadequacies of this first class of services. She described the frequent problem she faces of forgetting what personal informational and media is being sent to whom as a result of having to define relationships long-before the need to share information arises. And she described the handicapping of services she uses as a result of tailoring her use to suit the least-common denominator relationships in her diluted, hyperextended social networks. continue reading »

[Ghettoblaster for the Commodore 64]

Attended the SXSW session Mobile Phones: International Devices of Mystery today, where Matt Jones (filling in for some absent panelists) discussed his idea of “jealous” devices and expressed frustration with how these jealous, attention-craving mobile phones insist on pulling their owners into the screens – instead of pushing information out for shared, heads-up, social consumption. He also talked briefly about the “annoying” phenomenon of London, bus-riding teens playing hip-hop through the totally unsuitable speakers of their phones. This practice, not unknown to NYC subways, recalls the fabled, 80s past-time of walking down streets with a shoulder mounted boombox. And when I think about it, the boombox may be the only personal, portable device specifically designed for shared, public consumption – and specifically for sharing with strangers. So I imagine Matt’s onto something. Today, there does seem to be an unfulfilled need to more easily pull media out of personal devices for real-time sharing. continue reading »

[Photo: Navy Information Operation Command in the National Radio Quiet Zone]

Re-reading Dunne & Raby’s Design Noir, I was reminded of the National Radio Quiet Zone. Described by the authors as an “electromagnetic sanctuary, relatively free from electromagnetic pollution”, the 13,000 square mile swath of land straddling the Virginias was designated by the FCC in 1958. Pretty much all forms of wireless communication are prohibited in the area; and I remember reading somewhere only diesel cars are permitted since spark plugs generate too much radio noise. I like how Dunne & Raby’s description of the area as a “sanctuary” implies we’ll some day be vacationing in the NRQZ – giving our heads a rest form the tin foil that encapsulates them. But as is always the case with such things, all is not what it seems. Tucked away in the hills of the NRQZ is is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Navy’s Information Operations Command. It’s the later that has engendered the Quiet Zone’s mythical status, as it’s speculated the command center houses NSA intelligence gathering systems. Turning the paranoia of electronic surveillance on it’s head, suddenly the absence of wireless communication seems strangely suspicious. What is it they’re doing that’s not possible outside the “sanctuary”? And why doesn’t whatever they’re doing create any form of “electromagnetic pollution”? What sort of electromagnetic sorcery are they busy mastering?

I think the folklore emerging around the Quiet Zone is emblematic of a major cultural shift ubiquitous computing is forcing upon us: The absence of communication will be considered anomalous, inaccessibility to information will become incongruous and privacy will be more a matter of controlling mis-information than preventing information from appearing in the system. continue reading »