In today’s world data is power. Therefore, the technological giants; including Amazon, Google and Facebook; are going to great lengths to collect, analyze and utilize information about their customers (Haber, 2019). By extending their product and service offerings they strive to gain more and more insights into the demands and purchasing patterns of clients with a view to design and propose even more new revenue-bringing gadgets and solutions (Rijmenan, 2016).
Next to the already wieldy known approaches, including collaborative filtering and click-following techniques, those companies are starting to introduce more tangible devices, such as Alexa or Google Smart Home. Up till now, it was up to the customer to decide whether or not they want to equip themselves in those expensive watchdogs.
However, recently at the hardware event, Amazon presented two new additions to the data-collecting family: Sidewalk and eero. The former is a wireless protocol that aims to link smart devices. The latter, is a Wi-Fi router. With an aid of those, Amazon will be able to significantly increase the coverage of areas that it controls, in terms of continuous customer data collection, without customers even realizing it. The biggest threat that these new inventions impose on the privacy is the fact that users no longer need to be logged into the network provided by Amazon or poses Amazon’s devices – eero and Sidewalk can track smartphones that are in the close enough proximity to them. And as far this information is as least to say concerning, Amazon claims that by placing 700 of their newly-developed devices in a city of a size of Los Angeles (1,302 km2, population 4 million) they would be able to fully control the entire city. Now this is actually becoming scary. (Haber, 2019).
In this case, what is a common user’s chance to protect their privacy? Is it still save to walks on the sidewalks? Or shall we start imaging a life without smartphones as an only alternative to constantly being tracked? Will regulative bodies or another companies come to rescue with stricter privacy-protecting legislations or track-blocking devices?
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/technology/tech-investigations.html
https://www.inc.com/matt-haber/why-google-facebook-amazon-really-want-you-to-have-a-screen-based-smart-device-in-your-house.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-may-soon-be-able-to-track-your-phone-location-2019-9
Hello Anna,
Thank you for the insightfull post. Before reading this post, I was in doubt to purchase an Amazon Alexa, just for the fun of it. However, after reading this, I will rethink this decision. A situation in which Amazon deliberately tracks smartphone in order to generate data is indeed scary. But I’m also wondering if this is actually legal? Do you have any insights into the legality of this new kind of data collection? And how will tech giants like Apple or Samsung react to these hardware devices?
I strongly believe that, but also expect and hope, that regulators will limit or prohibit this way of data collection. Furthermore, I assume that iOS and Android updates close up the leaks via which Amazon collects the data. However, these assumptions might also just come forth out of fear for Amazon continuing and improving its seemingly unethical way of data collection
Hi Anna,
Very interesting post to read. It definitely is a scary thought that Amazon is able to control a city as big as Los Angeles with their devices.
However, I also think this change has been happening for some time now. Of course, tangible devices are new but they do not change something in the core, that is generating as much data as possible. If you own a smartphone and walk on the street, you already are being tracked by multiple apps. Sidewalk trackers are a new tangible product, but the essence of the data does not change. There is an interesting article about location marketing that talks about this billion dollar business (NRC, 2019). It’s in Dutch unfortunately.
In this article they talk about how companies and municipalities are using your location to get data about you. Municipalities want these insights for crowd control and police help. However, it is not something you can agree with. Once you own a smartphone, you automatically agree that sensitive data about you is shared.
NRC, 2019. https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/08/12/de-billboards-wandelen-tegenwoordig-met-je-mee-a3969809
Great topic Anna! I think that governments still has a lot to do about legislation concerning data, tracking, overhearing and privacy. In the documentary The Great Hack, they talk about making data privacy a basic human civil right. I strongly agree with that. Unfortunately, legislation has not been able to sufficiently catch up with the fast pace of technology… I think the long term effects for us citizens is immense, and we only are aware of half the threat….
Hi Anna!
Very interesting topic, impressive how technological improvements make all of this actually possible. And quite scary as well.. I think for now we are safe, every new privacy invading invention has come with certain restrictions so far. With the movement to more and more handsfree options to an actual smartphone I could see it happen that we are going to use something else than a phone, but will other devices not have the same problem? With the eye on the consumers needs (protecting their privacy), I can imagine there is also a market for “anti data tracking” devices and services. We will see what the future brings…
Hi Anna,
Very interesting topic you are addressing.
Your article reminds me of Sidewalk Labs that plans to rebuild an undeveloped section of Toronto’s waterfront and make it available for affordable housing and autonomous vehicles. Their overarching goal is data capturing and track everything from how people behave and with the environment which reminds me of Sidewalk. For future exploration, it would be interesting to dive deeper in how this technology works and what impact it has on consumer privacy.
Marshall, A. (2019). Alphabet’s Plan for Toronto Depends on Huge Amounts of Data. [online]. Available at:
https://www.wired.com/story/alphabets-plan-toronto-depends-huge-amounts-data/
Anna, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this interesting topic. I think technological developments are really valuable especially taking into consideration that it is no longer possible to live without the technological devices we use in our day-to-day lives. However, I totally agree with you when you state that these technological improvements to collect data are at least scary. I feel like information collected by tech giants such as Amazon and Google can be useful to a certain extent. However, due to privacy reasons, I have to say that I am totally worried about what’s already here and about these giants will be able to implement in the future to control us even more. In addition to this, what scares me the most is that I fell that our generation is becoming less and less worried about the data we generate for companies like these and the control they have on us, because, as I said, at least for me, it is a matter of privacy and exposure and I feel that more and more people do not care about being exposed. To give you my thoughts on the question you posed on the title, no, for me, sidewalks are not safe at all. But the main concern is that not even in our homes we can feel not exposed anymore.