Pri­vacy pro­tec­tion is termed as the most crit­i­cal issue aris­ing out of the usage of the mobile loca­tion ser­vices. In order to know more about pri­vacy devel­op­ments in the US, The­Where­Busi­ness spoke to David Diggs, vice-​​president, Wire­less Inter­net Devel­op­ment for CTIA, and Jay Malin, man­ag­ing direc­tor. Both Diggs and Malin are sched­uled to speak at the forth­com­ing, Peo­ple Track­ing and Loca­tion USA to be held in Chicago (22−23 June) this year.

Excerpts:
 
The­Where­Busi­ness: Can you pro­vide an insight into pri­vacy chal­lenges as of today?
 
David Diggs: Safe­guard­ing con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion is one of the most impor­tant oblig­a­tions that tele­com providers have to their cus­tomers. It’s an inte­gral and basic com­po­nent of a tele­com provider’s ser­vice. Tele­com car­ri­ers have long pro­tected the pri­vacy of their user’s loca­tion data, as a mat­ter of law under the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act of 1934. But the cur­rent envi­ron­ment involves other ser­vices – includ­ing loca­tion based ser­vice providers – that han­dle pri­vate con­sumer infor­ma­tion, but which may not be sub­ject to the same laws. For this rea­son, CTIA’s “Best Prac­tices and Guide­lines for Loca­tion Based Ser­vices” apply to LBS providers, many of whom are not sub­ject to the pri­vacy laws that per­tain to tele­com carriers.

The Guide­lines rely on two fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples: user notice and con­sent.
 
First, LBS providers must ensure that users receive mean­ing­ful notice about how loca­tion infor­ma­tion will be used, dis­closed and pro­tected so that users can make informed deci­sions whether or not to use the LBS.
 
Sec­ond, LBS providers must ensure that users con­sent to the use or dis­clo­sure of loca­tion infor­ma­tion, and LBS providers bear the bur­den of demon­strat­ing such con­sent.
 
Jay Malin: The most vis­i­ble issue cur­rently is with whom the data is shared? Loca­tion — just beyond where you are now — includes, where you are at night (live), where you are dur­ing the day (work), where you shop/​eat/​visit the gym (gen­der, age, income), thereby enabling the appli­ca­tion provider to build a pro­file of you that exceeds your expec­ta­tions. For the most part, this is already being done today by exist­ing data ven­dors who acquire trans­ac­tion data.
 
The­Where­Busi­ness: Research sug­gests con­sumers are con­cerned, but most ser­vices don’t tell them how or where they’ll be used. It has also been indi­cated that users may not think through the con­se­quences of mak­ing their loca­tion data pub­lic. What steps do you think need to be taken to cre­ate more aware­ness about the con­se­quences among the users?
 
David Diggs: There’s a respon­si­bil­ity incum­bent upon all providers of LBS to edu­cate con­sumers as to how the consumer’s loca­tion infor­ma­tion is col­lected, stored and used.
 
At the same time, con­sumers must take the time to under­stand the infor­ma­tion that’s avail­able about LBS appli­ca­tions. It’s impor­tant con­sumers read those license agree­ments, because that’s where the specifics about the app can be found. Respon­si­ble LBS devel­op­ers have spent the time to under­stand how their products/​services can be mis­used by abusers, and go to great lengths to incor­po­rate rea­son­able safe­guards against such misuse.