Tracking Consumers: The Future of Privacy with TV, Cell Phones, and Rental Cars - Prof. Ro, Study notes of Information Technology

Download Tracking Consumers: The Future of Privacy with TV, Cell Phones, and Rental Cars - Prof. Ro and more Study notes Information Technology in PDF only on Docsity! Boston Globe Online: Print it! THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING Your electronic friends - car, TV, and cell phone - may soon be the key to letting almost anyone peek into your private life By Stephanie Stoughton, Globe Staff, 7/9/2001 American consumers may have grown tired of hearing about Web sites that track mouseclicks. But how about some monitoring from the family-room TV set, cellular phone, or rented minivan? Soon, companies hope to track the viewing and surfing habits of consumers through TV set-top boxes. A rental-car owner can now prop open a laptop to find out whether a driver took a vehicle past 80 miles per hour. Wireless phone companies will know where you are as early as this fall. Proponents say these technologies provide a number of consumer benefits. Cable companies, for instance, could beam more ads for diapers and minivans to the homes of families with young kids. Rental-car firms might remotely unlock a vehicle's door or keep a driver from getting lost. Wireless service providers could offer ads for nearby stores and, more important, pinpoint the location of a cellphone user dialing 911. But critics are already sounding the alarm. They believe the spread of tracking technologies in everyday appliances and gadgets makes consumers' personal information even more vulnerable to corporate and government abuse. The problem is likely to grow, they say, as sophisticated TV set-top boxes and other equipment become more affordable. ''We are going to place inside everyone's homes, automobiles, and cellphones these commercial surveillance technologies that will surround our every movement,'' said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a non-profit consumer group in Washington, D.C. ''I do not see this as a trade-off we have to make to lead cyber-lives.'' Privacy advocates paint nightmare scenarios in which companies and government agencies track people through their cellphones, personal digital assistants, and rental cars. Cable companies, they say, could manipulate TV advertising or misfire commercials meant for an adult user to a child instead. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/190/business/Yo..._almost_anyone_peek_into_your_private_lifeP.shtml (1 of 5) [7/10/2001 9:51:33 AM] Boston Globe Online: Print it! ''You have to be concerned that little Johnny and Jane might sit in front of your TV set instead of their TV and find out that Dad and Mom engage every once in a while in kinky viewing,'' said Chester, who is pushing for stronger government regulation. Interactive TV takes shape Most Americans have never experienced interactive TV, but the ranks of companies trying to bring it to homes are rapidly widening. Liberty Media Corp., Microsoft Corp., and AOL Time Warner Inc. are just a few of the big names hoping to track viewers as they switch channels, skip commercials, or surf the Web from their television sets, according to a report last month by the Center for Digital Democracy. A host of technology providers are also waiting for interactive TV to become a reality. In Newton, Navic Systems Inc. has developed software that creates anonymous profiles of consumers based on viewing history, demographics, and ''psychographic'' data. That information allows cable, satellite, and advertising companies to distribute promotions to TV set-top boxes. Predictive Networks Inc., a Cambridge company that also uses anonymous profiles, recently applied for a patent on artificial-intelligence software that can tell which family member is surfing the Internet or TV channels based on their mouseclicks or remote control patterns. The interactive TV industry is trying to stave off additional regulation. Already, cable companies face strict privacy rules under the 1984 Cable Act, said Ben Isaacson, executive director of the Association for Interactive Media. The organization plans to draft privacy guidelines applying to all interactive TV players, including Microsoft's UltimateTV, personal video recorder TiVo and other services not covered by the cable law because they use phone lines. Today, the interactive TV business is a nascent one, and most companies say they are not finding many uses for consumers' personal information. Ed Graczyk, marketing director for Microsoft TV, said the company only collects its viewers' personal information for billing purposes and customer support. ''Today, we're not tracking any usage behavior, '' he said. This fall, AT&T Broadband will run an experiment in 30,000 homes to see whether consumers will respond to advertising tailored to fit the demographics of specific neighborhoods. But so far, this is not the interactive TV that consumer advocates fear. ''We're not there,'' said Tracy Baumgartner, a spokeswoman for AT&T Broadband. ''We can't see what you're watching... They're talking about something that's very futuristic.'' http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/190/business/Yo..._almost_anyone_peek_into_your_private_lifeP.shtml (2 of 5) [7/10/2001 9:51:33 AM]