The 3rd Location business summit Europe in Amsterdam has come to an end today; very few would argue that there has been groundbreaking news and intellectual talks on privacy concerns with new ways to position smartphones and their users.
The problem is not really that positioning technologies are used in smartphones, the problem is that I as a user can't control it, what to share and store as the manufacturers are eager to bundle the mobile OS with the data collection of where I'm using the smartphone.
They all do it, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia even if Google keeps the data for the Android users away from the manufacturers that exchanged their need for a cheap OS with the users privacy and Nokia has no control over WP7 and a shrunken number of Symbian users still alive. But the fact is that they all do it. Fuck up our privacy.
This is all we can accept as there are no alternatives unless you want to use a feature phone without apps or build your own smartphone (which I believe is just a year or two away).
But this is not the worst part of it. The real problem begins when you are getting sick or old and needs safety.
Then the booming market of healthcare apps and services steps in and wants to use smartphones to connect
their devices to, monitoring through the apps with sometimes superaccurate positioning in place (what room,
floor, etc) and this is when it becomes creepy for real.
I say let us be private and control our privacy. Of course this cannot be trusted to the ongoing masters of reality,
so we need personal positioning devices, very much like the old GPS with Bluetooth that you had to buy some
6-8 years ago if you wanted positioning with your mobile, but this time it should be able to position you indoor or
outdoor, accurate down to a meter and You should be in control of what services You share your positioning
with.
The problem is not really that positioning technologies are used in smartphones, the problem is that I as a user can't control it, what to share and store as the manufacturers are eager to bundle the mobile OS with the data collection of where I'm using the smartphone.
They all do it, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia even if Google keeps the data for the Android users away from the manufacturers that exchanged their need for a cheap OS with the users privacy and Nokia has no control over WP7 and a shrunken number of Symbian users still alive. But the fact is that they all do it. Fuck up our privacy.
This is all we can accept as there are no alternatives unless you want to use a feature phone without apps or build your own smartphone (which I believe is just a year or two away).
But this is not the worst part of it. The real problem begins when you are getting sick or old and needs safety.
Then the booming market of healthcare apps and services steps in and wants to use smartphones to connect
their devices to, monitoring through the apps with sometimes superaccurate positioning in place (what room,
floor, etc) and this is when it becomes creepy for real.
I say let us be private and control our privacy. Of course this cannot be trusted to the ongoing masters of reality,
so we need personal positioning devices, very much like the old GPS with Bluetooth that you had to buy some
6-8 years ago if you wanted positioning with your mobile, but this time it should be able to position you indoor or
outdoor, accurate down to a meter and You should be in control of what services You share your positioning
with.
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