Location, Location, Location: The Emerging Crisis in Wireless Data Privacy Ari Schwartz & Alan Davidson Center for Democracy and Technology

Overview The wireless data environment raises important new privacy concerns that could threaten the success of these wireless Web applications specifically, and individual liberty more generally. In this talk: –New Privacy Problems in Wireless Data –Remedies and Challenges: Industry best practices Government access and government regulation Technology approaches: Privacy by Design

The Online Privacy Problem A Rising Tide of Public Concern –Survey data and real business experiences showing that privacy is a major consumer concern as they move their lives online. New Privacy Risks –Collection of information that was never before available. –Aggregation of data across time, space, applications, vendors. Accumulation creates a detailed dossier of activity and thought. –Distribution now cheap and easy - and more widespread. –Retention is cheap and easy too, so “ is forever.”

Wireless Privacy is Even Harder Sensitive New Information, Especially Location –Personally-identifiable geographical location is a new form of extremely invasive data that consumers are not accustomed to dealing with. –Logging is a critical issue. Historical records of location can be a tool for surveillance and a treasure trove in lawsuits. –Meaningful notice and choice for consumers will be an essential part of location privacy. –Other context-based information creates new risks. Ex: Phone numbers as identifiers, Potential aggregation of click-stream data, location information, phone numbers dialed, off-line databases, etc.

Wireless Privacy is Even Harder Identification and Anonymity –Wireless data services appear to provide a clearer connection between a user’s activities and identity. Ex: Impact of sharing user phone number with wireless applications providers. –How will desired consumer anonymity be preserved? –Key point: Authentication is not Identification Platform-Specific Difficulties –Platform constraints on privacy policies, privacy seals –Traditional opt-in/opt-out harder to explain –What is meaningful notice/consent/access in the wireless context?

Privacy Responses: Industry Best Practices Need for industry best practices and standards, including: –Meaningful notice –Meaningful consent –Adherence to other Fair Information Practices, including access, control, and use limitation –Good system security –Capability for anonymous/pseudonymous activity –Take-home point: Privacy can and will be a source of competitive advantage. Industry self-regulation must be the first defense But marketplace approaches have limitations...

Wireless Privacy: The Government Access Problem The best corporate privacy practices are of limited help if sensitive information is readily available through other means without adequate privacy protections. Access can take place in the course of criminal investigations, or civil discovery in a range of contexts. The customer subject to a subpoena or court order need never have violated the law.

Privacy Responses: The Government Laws needed to protect sensitive information such as location, so that data is only released pursuant to the highest legal standards. Regulations likely to protect highly sensitive areas, such as health and financial data. Other regulations might ensure baseline industry practices (especially notice and choice) and punish abuse. But regulation is highly limited as well... –Government is slow, has other interests (e.g. surveillance) –National laws don’t scale globally

Privacy Responses: Technology Privacy as design value: Importance of building privacy into the technology. Collection limitation –Don’t collect, keep, share, or communicate data unless essential –Exs. Log retention, sharing of location and phone number Anonymity, Limits on identification –Limit personally identifiable of data –Allow for anonymity, pseudonymity, proxies, trust agents –Reminder: Authentication is not Identification Enhance user control –Ex. W3C Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) –Default Location Controls Should Be OFF

Conclusion Wireless data systems raise important new concerns about privacy, and new opportunities for those who can gain consumer trust. Promoting privacy and trust will likely require a combination of industry responses, government action (esp. rules for lawful access to data), and technology. Privacy should be a critical technical design value as wireless data systems are conceived and implemented. For more information about privacy online please visit:

Appendix: Fair Information Practice Principles Collection Limitation Openness Consent Access Data Quality Use Limitation Security Accountability