Hold it. What the hell is going on here? Cities are sinking deeper and deeper into surveillance. In the latest episode of “Businesses Just Wanna Have Data,” the West Jordan City Council is seriously considering going along with a business proposal that would give them a business’s sensor data collected from your devices – data that the city likely couldn’t use in any criminal proceeding but could use for other purposes – while the business gets to track you and sell your data for marketing.
Would this be a good time to raise the issue of persistent identifiers and privacy again? How about metadata?
Kayla Goodson reports:
Blyncsy is a Salt Lake City-based start-up that has installed sensors in cities across five states. These sensors are installed on light poles and pick up a customized electronic identifier each time a device passes under the sensor. This data allows cities and businesses to track traffic data more accurately than other methods, so the data can be used for economic development, finding faster routes for police and firefighters and event planning.
Read more on the Salt Lake Tribune. It appears that at least some people there have their heads on straight there about the privacy concerns. Hopefully, they will be able to persuade others.