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170 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY

LIFE ON THE GRID: IPHONE BECOMES ITRACK

Do you like your smartphone? Living on the grid has the Wall Street Journal published the results of its
its advantages. You can access the Internet, visit your research on smartphone tracking technology and
Facebook page, get Twitter feeds, watch video, and individual private location data. They discovered
listen to music all with the same “communication that both Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android
and media device.” Less well known is that living phones were collecting personal, private location
on the grid means near continuous tracking of your data, for a variety of reasons. Both firms are
whereabouts, locations, habits, and friends. At first, building massive databases that can pinpoint your
the Web made it possible for you to search for and location, and although Google is already a leader in
find products, and some friends. Now the mobile search across most platforms, Apple is also trying
Web grid tracks you and your friends to sell you to establish itself in the mobile advertising market-
products and services. place. Advertising firms will pay Apple and Google
New technologies found on smartphones can iden- for that information and for distributing their
tify where you are located within a few yards. And mobile ads.
there’s a great deal of money to be made knowing Apple transmits your location data back to
where you are. Performing routine actions using your central servers once every 12 hours, and it also
smartphone makes it possible to locate you through- stores a copy of your locations on the iPhone.
out the day, to report this information to corporate Android phones transmit your location data
databases, retain and analyze the information, and continuously. Apple’s files on the iPhone device
then sell it to advertisers. A number of firms have can be stored for many months. Both Apple and
adopted business models based on the ability of smart- Google have denied that they share this informa-
phones to report on your whereabouts, whether or not tion with third parties, as well as that the infor-
you choose to do so. Most of the popular apps report mation can identify individuals (as opposed to
your location. Law enforcement agencies certainly cell phones), and claim the information is being
have an interest in knowing the whereabouts of crimi- used only to identify the location of cell phones
nals and suspects. There are, of course, many times for Wi-Fi–connected phones, and to improve the
when you would like to report your location either customer experience of location-based services.
automatically or on your command. If you were Apple’s technology reads the signal strength of
injured, for instance, you might like your cell phone nearby Wi-Fi transmitters, identifies and maps
to be able to automatically report your location to their location, and then calculates the location of
authorities, or, if you were in a restaurant, you might the iPhone device. The result is a very large data-
want to notify your friends where you are and what base of Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States, and a
you are doing. But what about occasions when you method for locating iPhones that is not dependent
don’t want anyone to know where you are, least of all on global positioning system (GPS) signals. Both
advertisers and marketers? companies say the location information is needed
Location data gathered from cell phones has for them to improve their services. And location
extraordinary commercial value because advertising tracking is itself improving: newer tracking tech-
companies can send you highly targeted advertise- nologies can automatically detect the places you
ments, coupons, and flash bargains, based on where visit, know when you arrive or leave, track how
you are located. This technology is the foundation for many times you’ve been to that location, and
many location-based services, which include smart- even know whether you’ve been sitting, walking,
phone maps and charts, shopping apps, and social or driving. Several companies, including Alohar
apps that you can use to let your friends know where Mobile, Skyhook, Wifarer, and Broadcom, are
you are and what you are doing. Revenues from the developing this type of next-generation tracking
global location-based services market are projected to technology, which will add even more value to the
reach $3.8 billion by the end of 2012, and will rise to data you generate by using your smartphone.
$10.3 billion in 2015, according to Gartner. Smartphone apps that provide location-based
But where does the location data come from, services are also sources of personal, private loca-
who collects it, and who uses it? In April 2011, tion information based on the smartphone GPS

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