Are Our Privacy Rules Changing?

Do you realize how much information is gathered from your smartphone?  This is something most people use every day, but not just to make calls.  It is also used to surf the Internet, send e-mails and update social networking.  Many people even use their smartphones as a GPS.  Because of its many functions, your smartphone holds information on your location, your e-mail contacts and your favorite Internet sites.   In other words, your smartphone is yet another way you can be tracked on-line. 

It seems like every month new apps are being developed for smartphones and tablets.  In fact, the smartphone is probably used less to make calls than to surf the Internet.  You can use Google Maps to find any location in the world, you can keep up with your office e-mail and you can even use GasBuddy to find the least expensive gas in the area.  When you’re ready for a break, you can play your favorite on-line games!  All this can be done with one device.  You can be traveling, yet you’ll never be far from your office or home.  You can even access sites that can help you out with a solution if you don’t know how to handle your two-year-old’s tantrums or medical sites that can tell you what that strange rash on your leg is.

Yes, these apps are a fantastic convenience, but they also leave us open for tracking.  Many people find that the convenience far out-weighs the risk of being tracked.  After all, isn’t it better to have access to all of these great sites if it means all you have to do is enter your zip code and your birth date?  There are thousands of people in that zip code with the same birth date, so what could be the harm?  Well, thousands of people aren’t using YOUR smartphone!

With this information, you are opening yourself up to being tracked by advertisers.  This can happen because many sites share the gathered information with others. They know your location from your GPS, so with your zip code, birth date and the knowledge of what sites you visit on-line added in with your e-mail address, you are going to get a whole lot of targeted advertisements in your inbox.  You could also be given suggestions for even more apps to either purchase or download for free.

These app developers claim that in order to get the full benefits, some personal information is needed.  Congress has discussed the issue of these apps as a privacy risk.  It has also been discussed that consumers should be allowed to opt out of being tracked, but so far, not much has been done to remedy this.

One thing that is in the works is a hearing being planned by Senator Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia.  He is Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.   He is proposing that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) penalize any company that violates a consumer’s request not to be tracked.  But, the companies are fighting back.  They claim that the Digital Advertising Alliance links consumers to its site that has a list of advertisers that abide by “opt out”.  Of the 20 million visitors to that site, only about 1 million have actually chosen to opt out of this tracking.

The problem with this is that when a smartphone is used, the privacy risk is far greater than simple tracking because your location is known.  Privacy advocates and the FTC are worried that with a known location at any given time, a person can not only be tracked by where he or she goes on-line, but also where he or she is in the world.  This can lead to stalking and identity theft because that person’s personal schedule can be traced from home and everywhere they go throughout the day and night. 

Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Marc Rotenberg has said that consumers have no idea how much of their personal information is being gathered or how it’s used.  He feels that as with anything put out to consumers, the companies have a responsibility to make sure that no one gets hurt.  He stated, “You shouldn’t be put at risk if a car is correctly designed when you go on the highway, and that’s our view of Internet-based services.  People shouldn’t have to lose their privacy to use Internet-based services.”

Julie Brill, FTC Commissioner says that what is unknown causes the most concern.  She has said, “The industry is moving so quickly and changing so much that we need to make sure that the laws are keeping up with it.” 

At this time, the only thing to come out of all this has been setting voluntary tech industry standards.  There is dialogue between the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and industry lobbyists to come up with some new standards for mobile app disclosures.  These standards would give the consumer a chance to see what information is collected and whether or not it’s shared with any other parties. 

Nothing is expected to be finalized until late spring, but from the looks of things it will be easy to understand by letting consumers know which apps designed for your smartphone gather and share the least and the most of your personal information.  It will then be up to consumers to decide if they mind being labeled by marketing companies for their habit of playing “Cut the Rope” on their smartphones. 

Please take the time to download the Privacy Guide offered at the top of this page.  It only takes a few minutes and is completely free.  In it, you will find many helpful suggestions on how to stay safe on-line and off.