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But the technology also has some pernicious potential. It will be much easier for everybody, including your employer, enemies, and creditors, to track you down. As you travel from the gynecologist to your lawyer's office to the liquor store, a permanent record can be built of your movements. That valuable data can then theoretically be sold to marketing companies -- or to anybody else who wants it. Welcome to the newest tech policy battleground: location privacy. So far, the privacy issue has primarly focused on where people travel in cyberspace. But in a few years, technology will exist that will make it dramatically easier for strangers to know where you are in physical space. In addition to cell phones, highly advanced GPS technology is also likely to be added to most models of cars. Already, the General Motors OnStar service, which is offered on several models as an optional feature, uses GPS data to provide directions, restaurant recommendations, and emergency roadside assistance. The long-term implications of GPS technology frighten many privacy advocates. "Location is information that was never easily available before -- and certainly never remotely to third parties without even the target's knowledge," says Alan Davidson, of the Center for Democracy & Technology. "I don't think people realize how available the information is, and how it is already being used. We've never had a situation where information about the location of millions of people is suddenly readily available, easily and cheaply." A WAY TO OPT OUT? The issue of location privacy has already triggered a few isolated legal skirmishes. Privacy groups are fighting new Federal Communications Commission regulations that allow the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to obtain highly detailed location information from cell phones. Civil rights groups have also criticized a recent insurance industry initiative in Texas to give automobile drivers lower rates in exchange for carrying around GPS transmitters. In a couple of criminal cases, defense lawyers have unsuccessfully tried to prevent cops from putting GPS devices on suspects under surveillance. Notwithstanding these isolated battles, there is still no legal protection whatsoever for citizens who object to the collection of data about their location. Companies are entirely free to monitor where people go and then resell the data. "There are no legal standards governing how the information is handled, or what can be done with it, and what rights people should have to be...notified of the capability. All of that is wide-open," says David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. Over the long run, Sobel and other privacy advocates don't think it is possible to halt the collection of location data. It provides too many useful benefits. But they are hoping that a system can be created where people are given the option of choosing not to have their location data transmitted. One possible way of doing this would be to create a switch that says "Find Me" when people want to signal where they are located, suggests Sobel. "The question boils down to whether users are in control of when information about them goes out." Ideally, privacy advocates hope that this system can be managed privately by the business community. But if such self-regulation fails, Davidson predicts Congress would not wait long to establish laws protecting people's location privacy. "When people realize what's going on, I think there is going to be a real backlash," Davidson predicts. France covers Legal Affairs for Business Week in New York. Have a question or a comment? Let him know at mike_france@ebiz.businessweek.com. |
