Digital Tracking Devices Coming Soon

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 30, 2000 -- Imagine walking by a Starbucks in an unfamiliarcity. Your cell phone rings, and a coupon for coffee pops up on itsscreen, good only at that location.

How did your phone know you were even near that particularStarbucks? What else does it know about you?

Enter location tracking, coming to a mobile device near you.Features that one day can pinpoint your whereabouts to within thelength of a football field raise enormous privacy concerns, butthey also offer enormous benefits.

The challenge will be determining where to draw the line.

Digital Angel

Consider a technology to be unveiled today. Called DigitalAngel, a microchip worn close to the body promises to record aperson’s biological parameters and send distress signals duringmedical emergencies.

But misused, these types of capabilities could amount to virtualstalking.

Cell phones, handheld devices, even car navigation systems willsoon have detailed tracking abilities, if they do not already.Services could begin appearing within a year or so.

Much of the drive will come from a federal law that requirescell phones to identify callers’ locations to speed 911 emergencyresponses. If the industry has to install expensive equipmentanyway, why not use it also to make money?

“There’s going to be a dramatic increase in the amount oftracking that’s made possible, in part by services they don’t knowthey have,” said Daniel J. Weitzner of the World Wide WebConsortium, which sets technical standards for the Web.

Such tracking will let someone visit a Web site andautomatically get weather, movie showings or neighborhoodrestaurants, based on their current location. If they’re lost, theywill be able to ask for turn-by-turn directions. Those short ofcash can be pointed to the nearest bank machine.

Big Brother Always With Us?

But if the information is stored, location tracking could resultin a 24-hour-a-day record of a person’s whereabouts.

So what if a divorce lawyer wants to check if someone’s beencheating, or if a social service agent wants to know how many timesa person has visited a candy store with his child?

“You have to ask, ‘Who gets how much information?“‘ said JasonCatlett, chief executive of Junkbusters Corp., a non-profit privacymonitoring group in Green Brook, N.J.

“Telephone records are routinely subpoenaed. They can be veryintrusive, but far more intrusive is a complete log of yourphysical movement.”

But companies looking to gain business from location trackinginsist that the worst-case scenarios presented are impractical toimplement in reality.

“There’s no way a database is large enough or cost effectivefor Starbucks to monitor everyone’s location on the offchance theycan acquire a customer,” said Jason Devitt, chief executive ofVindigo, which offers 11 city guides through Palm organizers.

Lee Hancock, founder and chief executive of go2 Systems Inc.,said any short-term gains from such tactics would be offset bylosses if they alienate customers.

Leading wireless and advertising companies agree that they musttread carefully because mobile devices are inherently more personalthan desktop computers.

Slow Rollout

At DoubleClick Inc., whose ad-targeting system generated much ofthe Net’s privacy complaints, officials won’t deliverlocation-based ads right away. The company wants to develop privacystandards first, using lessons from the desktop.

“We’ve all learned what to do and what not to do, and we canport that over to the wireless market,” said Jamie Byrne,strategic director for emerging platforms at DoubleClick.

Any such ads will likely target a metropolitan region, ratherthan a city block, because audiences for block-by-block ads wouldbe too small, Byrne said. Ultimately, he said, such targeting willhelp subsidize wireless services that customers want.

Jonathan Fox, director of business development at advertisingcompany Engage Inc., says location-based profiles would not carrynames and other personal information.

TRUSTe, which runs a seal-of-approval program for Internetprivacy policies, is looking to develop guidelines for mobileapplications. Details that remain to be worked out include how tonotify customers on a phone’s small screen.

“It’s more difficult to retrofit policies if you’re alreadydown the road,” said Robert Lewin, TRUSTe chief executive. “Here,we have the opportunity to do it right the first time.”

In many ways, a person’s whereabouts are already being tracked.

Employee security cards record when people enter buildings.Discount grocery programs track what people buy, where and when.Electronic toll-payment systems know when someone traverses atunnel or bridge.

Location, Location, Location?

Current phones can pinpoint callers to a few miles bydetermining the location of the cell tower used to handle the call.

Palm VII organizers use similar techniques to narrow a user to aparticular zip code, and an optional global-positioning receivercan pinpoint that person even further.

Marketers can also get clues from the items people search for orthe sites they visit—a city guide, for instance, tells in whatcity a person is likely located or where they plan to visit.

But for the most part, marketers have yet to take full advantageof such knowledge, and consumers have yet to complain.

“We’re providing value,” Palm spokesman Ted Ladd said.“Mobile users are inherently in a hurry.”

Wireless providers are not likely to have a use for storinglocation information, except perhaps for applications that helpwith driving directions.

Paul Reddick, vice president of product management anddevelopment with Sprint PCS, said such storage is not practical,necessary or even desirable.

“It takes years to build a brand and build trust,” he said,“and you can blow it pretty fast.”