Well, if two malls in the U.S. have their way, they will track potential customers and their movements around the mall via mobile phone location data. Apparently, we’re one step closer to the kind of personal advertising as seen in the movie, Minority Report:

Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year’s Day, two U.S. malls — Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. — will track guests’ movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.

The report indicates the data is anonymous, but these malls will be able to track users, or their devices, anyway, from store to store.

Is this a good thing? Should retail outlets be able to monitor the movements of people based on their smartphone-generated location data? Or should something like this have to have legal approval beforehand? Apparently, there are goals associated with the tracking, and, of course, they are marketing related:

The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most customers linger in Victoria’s Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the mall that aren’t being visited?

While both malls say personal data is not being tracked, how hard is it to match a phone signal up with its user? For instance, “we have a potential shopper who just left the store next to ours. Let’s put our best foot forward at the storefront and try to attract those who are passing by.” Apparently, however, that is not the intention of this tracking project:

“We won’t be looking at singular shoppers,” said Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest City. “The system monitors patterns of movement. We can see, like migrating birds, where people are going to.”

CNN also documents the tracking service being used by the malls in question:

The tracking system, called FootPath Technology, works through a series of antennas positioned throughout the shopping center that capture the unique identification number assigned to each phone (similar to a computer’s IP address), and tracks its movement throughout the stores.

Consumers who don’t want to be followed have one method of opting out of the tracking service: turn their phone off.

This leads to a couple of questions: Would you shop at a mall that tracked users based on mobile data? Do these tracking services violate privacy, even if no personal data is being collected? Shouldn’t there be another way besides powering down your device to opt out of this tracking service?

Let us know what you think.

Nevertheless, when the news about how iPhone users had their locations tracked and stored by their devices, the topic gained a great deal of momentum. Granted, Apple has since addressed the storage of this location data, but the fact remains, iPhones are still quite trackable. In fact, almost every movement of an iPhone user can be followed, provided the user’s phone is on, and, of course, they have it with them.

Over at CrowdFlow.net, their goal is to organize all of this location data for visualization purposes, something their sidebar states clearly:

You probably know by now that your iPhone collects the position data of wifi and cell networks near by.

We would like to combine as many of these log files as possible, create an open database of wifi and cell networks and thus visualize how these networks are distributed all over the world.

So please contribute your iPhone log files and help us to create an open wifi und cell database.

Interested parties can donate their location data if they so choose. Meanwhile, CrowdFlow developed the “iPhone Fireflies” video to demonstrate what the movements of 880 iPhones looks like. The results are impressive. As their post indicates, the developers couldn’t decide on a color scheme for the video, so they produced three different ones:

The geo data of the iPhones are quite accurate, but I only know the locations at specific points in time. So for example I know the accurate position of an iPhone at 12:03 and at 14:27 but I have no clue, how this iPhone had moved in the meantime.

So my estimation is that an iPhone moves from the last known location at an average speed of 30km/h – in all possible directions. It’s like a diffusion process. That’s why the estimated location becomes more and more blurry and the light fades away.

And vice versa: If I know, that an iPhone will appear in one hour at a specific location, it should be somewhere nearby now – in a blur with a radius of 30km. (30km in 1 hour = 30km/h)

And that’s why the image becomes blurry during the night. Most iPhones are not moving in the night; therefore they do not collect data; their positions are vaguer and the lights dissolve.

Kreil also indicates the process was developed using tools that he wrote using Delphi and a combination of algorithms. The result offers a telling look at just readily this information can be used to produce striking visual recreations; although, it wouldn’t be surprising if some people reacted with trepidation, especially those who get fussy about privacy. Of course, considering these devices have been producing location data since activation — the era, not the phones — at some point, it becomes common knowledge, or at least it should.

The first tweak is the ability to get your Google Place reviews and ratings as an Atom feed. Just go to your Places profile (click on your pic at the top left) and on the left you will see the option to “get your reviews as a feed.”

Not only does Google now want you to have access to your Google Places data as a feed, but it is also now allowing you to import your Foursquare check-in data into Google Places for rating and reviewing purposes. From the Places blog:

In addition to taking your Google Places ratings and reviews with you, we also thought it’d be useful if you could more easily rate and review on Google the places you’ve found elsewhere in your travels or on the web.

To do that, just find the URL of a public GeoRSS/Atom feed that contains place information you care about. This could be anything from a feed of your Foursquare check-ins to a My Map you may have created years ago. Paste the URL into the search box on Google Places. We’ll show you place cards that line up, as best as we’re able to determine, with the places in the public geo feed. Then, you can rate to your heart’s content.

The only problem with this, obviously, is that I have to do all this just to import a few Foursquare places. Let me explain.

The process is easy enough. All you have to do is sign into the Foursquare website and then go to foursquare.com/feeds. Once there, copy the rss feed link. Then head on over to places.google.com/rate and paste the link into the search box in Google Places.

When I tried this, Google Places did indeed import my Foursquare data – but only 4 check-ins. I’m not the only one to get these results as MC Siegler over at Tech Crunch had the same issue:

Trying it out, the results seem to sync up well. But I can’t get it to go beyond my ten most recent Foursquare check-ins. So much for my entire Foursquare history.

So the copy and pasting really isn’t worth it just to load a few check-ins from your history. But the ability to import location data from other sources into Google Places is a good idea is theory – if it works out this obvious problem.

First up, the update reduces the size of the cache on your devices. The problem for many regarding the location tracking issue was not the fact that Apple collects data on your location, but that it logged it for up to a year in some cases.

Apple released a statement last week that called this a “bug” and said that the cache should only need to keep location data for about a week.

Next, the cache will no longer be backed up on iTunes. This was another point that concerned users. When you synched your device with your computer, the consolidated.db file would be copied onto your hard drive. Since the file was found to be unencrypted, many were worried about the location data falling into the hands of those who would use it for nefarious purposes.

Lastly, the cache will be completely deleted if the user turns off location services. Users were angry when they found out last week that the little amount of power they had when it came to location tracking, well, they didn’t actually have it. The iPhone was found to be logging data into the cache whether users had location services enabled or not. iOS 4.3.3 eliminates this issue.

So, how do you feel? Is this enough to assuage your fears? Has Apple now done enough to put the issue to bed? Some don’t think so, as one woman is filing a class action suit against Apple stating that Apple “collected the private location information covertly, surreptitiously and in violation of law.”

Oh, yeah, and by the way – according to Wired, the download is 666 MB.

A South Korean police official is quoted as saying, “We suspect AdMob collected person location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission.” Google completed its acquisition of mobile ad network AdMob back in May of 2010.

Location tracking has been quite the issue in the States for the last few weeks. First, tech researchers found a hidden file in iOS devices that tracked users’ location data for around one year. The file is completely unencrypted and it duplicated on any computer with which you sync your device.

Apple responded recently and said that the length of time that the file keeps records is a bug. Just yesterday it was reported that the new version if iOS, 4.3.3, will fix these “bugs.”

Google was then implicated in tracking-gate as it was revealed that Android devices were collecting location data quite frequently and transmitting it back to Google along with a “unique phone identifier.” So much for anonymity.

The only response from Google so far on the South Korea raid is that the company is cooperating with the investigation.

This isn’t Google’s first scuffle with South Korea either.

Their offices were previously raided for street view data that was said to have violated privacy laws in the country. Last month, South Korea also hit Google with antitrust allegations. Google quickly responded, ensuring that Android is a completely open platform.

The just released letter is in response to a March 29th letter from two congressmen, Joe Barton and Edward Markey, two house members with a history of being involved in the consumer privacy issue.  Their letters were sent to all four major carriers and asked about privacy practices, notably location tracking.

We’ve all known for quite some time now that service providers keeps extensive location records on file.  Providers assure us that these records are not shared with any third-parties and are only used for the betterment of service and in the rare case that they need to be accessed by law enforcement.

In the letter, Verizon makes a point to differentiate their privacy practices with those of manufacturers like Google and Apple and third-party applications that access your location data:

When these applications and services are provided by Verizon Wireless, Verizon Wireless only collects and uses customer location information for non-service and operational purposes, such as delivery of a locally relevant ad or coupon, upon providing clear disclosure and after obtaining the customer’s affirmative consent.  Verizon Wireless authorizes third-party application developers and service providers to utilize Verizon Wireless-provided technologies to obtain customer location information only if they adhere to the same disclosure and consent requirements

As to applications and services provided by third parties (without the use of Verizon Wireless technologies), however, Verizon Wireless does not and indeed cannot control the collection and use of location information.  Verizon Wireless therefore provides its customers with prominent notices about privacy concerns that may arise in third-party-provided location services, and gives customers tools to limit or restrict the collection and use of the information.

Verizon also addresses just how long they store your location data:  up to 7 years.

The most interesting piece of info detailed in this letter is that Verizon plans to slap a warning label on phones operating with Verizon service.  This label will warn customers that the device in their hand is capable of tracking their location.  While not as ‘duh’ as McDonalds “this coffee is hot” warning labels, I wonder what’s the real purpose of the label.  Here’s what it’ll look like, according to the letter.

AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile also responded to the congressmen.  Read all of the response here.

Wednesday, Apple finally responded to the tracking issue.   The fact that user data was being logged for up to a year was blamed on a bug.

Or ask Ben Affleck, who was depicted in a love-act with an 8-year-old’s hand-puppet that he thought was current girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.  Or more recently, Britney Spears’ cameo involved her attempting suicide but surviving as a disfigured, headless monster.

So Steve Jobs can’t be too thrilled that he is the focus of the season premiere of South Park, airing tonight on Comedy Central.

In this sneak peak of the upcoming episode we find Jobs’ in his trademark black turtleneck, introducing his newest creation, the HumancentiPad.  He lauds the new invention as “a new product that will once again revolutionize the way we use our phones and tablet devices.”  Video is NSFW due to unsavory references.

This bit is clearly a reference to last year’s underground hit horror film, The Human Centipede.  No need for me to go into details about it.  If you haven’t seen it, Google it.  Be careful, however.

The last time Mr. Jobs appeared on South Park, he was a featured guest at the premiere of Mr. Garrison’s new transportation device, the “IT.”  The IT operated by two strategically placed metal rods…just check out the video below.  If you haven’t guessed, it’s also NSFW.

Job’s company Apple has been in the news recently.  Two data scientists discovered a file in iOS devices that stores users’ location data.  It took Apple over a week to respond, but they finally did this morning in a press release.

Today, Jobs himself responded to the tracking issue in an interview with All Things D’s Mobilized.  He reiterated what Apple’s release said earlier, that they weren’t tracking anyone.

“We haven’t been tracking anyone,” Jobs said in a telephone interview with Mobilized on Wednesday. “The files they found on these phones, as we explained, it turned out were basically files we have built through anonymous, crowdsourced information that we collect from the tens of millions of iPhones out there.”

“As new technology comes into the society there is a period of adjustment and education,” Jobs said. “We haven’t–as an industry–done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here. As such, (people) jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions in the last week.”

It’s a good thing he responded, as the public’s concern continues to grow about the tracking issue.  The recent privacy concern is most likely too recent to be a part of tonight’s South Park episode, but who knows.  Those guys are crafty.  I can see it now:

Unencrypted geo-logging is bad, mmmmmmkay.

This is the unequivocal opening statement from Apple’s official release this morning.  This marks the first official response from the company since the iPhone tracking location data snafu.

Of course by now you know that last week two data scientists presented information on a hidden data file on iOS devices that was storing location data that reached as far back as one year.  Although there was no indication that this specific data was being directly sent to Apple or any other party, the data was unprotected and unencrypted so it raised privacy concerns.

Apple, as well as Google have admitted in the past to collecting anonymous random location data for the purposes of improving upon its location database.  But logging all of that info into a single file was ominous news for some.

Earlier this week, an email surfaced that purported to be a conversation with Steve Jobs about the issue, but the validity of that correspondence wasn’t confirmed.  The response did sound snarky enough to be Mr. Jobs, however.

In today’s official release from Apple, they address the  particular data file that was found to be storing location data.  Apple states that the reason it exists is to assist location calculating.  They blame a bug on the fact that it has been logging data as far back as one year.

6. People have identified up to a year’s worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today?
This data is not the iPhone’s location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don’t think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.

On Monday, it was also found that the iPhone was logging your location data even if you disabled location services in the settings.  Apple also says that this is a bug, and will be fixed.

Here is Apple’s full statement:

Apple would like to respond to the questions we have recently received about the gathering and use of location information by our devices.

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this?
Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.

3. Why is my iPhone logging my location?
The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.

4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone?
The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon (see Software Update section below).

5. Can Apple locate me based on my geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
No. This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form. Apple cannot identify the source of this data.

6. People have identified up to a year’s worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today?
This data is not the iPhone’s location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don’t think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.

7. When I turn off Location Services, why does my iPhone sometimes continue updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple’s crowd-sourced database?
It shouldn’t. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below).

8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

9. Does Apple currently provide any data collected from iPhones to third parties?
We provide anonymous crash logs from users that have opted in to third-party developers to help them debug their apps. Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party or ad unless the user explicitly approves giving the current location to the current ad (for example, to request the ad locate the Target store nearest them).

10. Does Apple believe that personal information security and privacy are important?
Yes, we strongly do. For example, iPhone was the first to ask users to give their permission for each and every app that wanted to use location. Apple will continue to be one of the leaders in strengthening personal information security and privacy.

Software Update

Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

• reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
• ceases backing up this cache, and
• deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.

Senators, representatives, state officials and entire foreign countries have all requested a response from Apple regarding the involuntary logging of location data in iOS devices.

And according to MacRumors, Apple’s Steve Jobs has broken his silence to a random, unnamed MacRumors reader.  Here’s the alleged email correspondence:

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

Always the skeptic, I of course question the legitimacy of this brief conversation…but if that response doesn’t sound like Steve Jobs then I don’t know what does.  The only way I would’ve been sure that it was really Jobs is if he would’ve referred to the claims as “magical.”

The unidentified sender of the email query should be told that tests confirmed last week the Google was also mining for location data through Android devices much more aggressively and much less anonymously than they led on.

Today, more information emerged about the now famous consolidated.db file.  The WSJ reported that through their own tests they found that disabling location services on your iDevices does not stop the logging of location data.  Many had thought this would be a quick fix to the problem.

Whether this was really Jobs or not, you have to expect a more formal response in the next few days.  The media firestorm around this topic began almost a week ago.

How much do people want to share with their friends? If it extends to where they are and when they are there, Yahoo’s next project emerging from Brickhouse may fill the need.

Services like the Movable Type blogging platform and social media site Pownce both support Fire Eagle, Yahoo’s solution to location data management. Fire Eagle’s implementation for an application allows users to control how much of what they share, and who gets to see where they are.

Yahoo opened the platform and placed support for it at the hands of developers. Through the API for Fire Eagle, developers make their applications aware of their user’s locations; this enables them to provide content relevant to their locale.

Fire Eagle naturally carries a mobile component, an essential bit of any location-based service. With thousands of people carrying web-capable devices like the iPhone and a host of other handsets, Fire Eagle support within an application broadens its appeal beyond the desktop.

Yahoo said Fire Eagle picked up support from over fifty applications during a private beta period, as sites in addition to Pownce and Movable Type experimented with the technology. Social networking and traffic & travel-related applications emerged, but we expect to see Fire Eagle take off in adoption as developers figure out how to monetize what they can deliver based on location to their users.