Location is Everything Balancing Innovation, Convenience, and Privacy in Location-based Technologies Submitted by: C. Christopher Post Stephen Woodrow fccpost,
[email protected] for 6.805/STS.487: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier Submitted 10 December 2008 (Revision 83) Abstract Location-based technologies (LBTs) | services, devices, and appplications that provide functionality and content tailored by knowledge of your current location | are becoming popular with consumers and are expected to be a major growth area in the mobile device market. While offering great convenience, LBTs are implemented significantly differently from previous technologies providing similar features, and these differences pose new privacy risks to users of LBTs. This paper shows that users of new LBTs expose themselves to privacy risks that are difficult to understand and manage, due to the nature and current implementation of most LBTs. We begin by identifying and discussing the essential differences between LBTs and previous technology efforts to gain an understanding of how LBTs differ from previous technologies, and the privacy implications of these differences. We proceed to explore how these issues manifest themselves in implemented LBT systems commonly available today, including the Apple iPhone, the T-Mobile G1, and the Skyhook Wireless geolocation system. Finally, with an understanding of some of the theoretical and real pitfalls in LBTs, we propose measures to improve user privacy. These measures include new law to provide accountability for data collection and use, policy approaches to ensure users understand their privacy risks and have real choice in managing these risks, and technical methods to deal with some particulary concerning problems we uncovered.