Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
However, a group of researchers at the University of Texas-Austin demonstrated
how it was possible, with just a little information about movies seen by an individual,
to identify the movie rating records associated with that person, revealing potentially
sensitive information, such as their political leanings or sexual orientation [61]. The rev-
elation that the release of “anonymous” movie ratings information could compromise
the privacy of Netflix subscribers led to a complaint by the US Federal Trade Commis-
sion and a lawsuit. On March 12, 2010, Netflix announced that it was canceling a Netflix
Prize sequel [62].
On Black Friday, 2011 two malls in the United States—the Promenade Temecula in Cal-
ifornia and the Short Pump Town Center in Virginia—began recording the movement
of shoppers through the stores by tracking the locations of their cell phones. The malls
hoped to be able to answer such questions as these:
.
How much time do people spend in store X?
.
How many people who shop at store Y also shop at store Z?
.
Are there unpopular areas of the mall that do not attract enough shoppers?
Small signs posted throughout the malls informed shoppers of the study. It let them
know that the data were being collected anonymously; the mall assigned an ID code
to each phone and tracked the movements of the phone without knowing anything
about the person carrying the phone. To prevent data about their movements from being
collected, shoppers had to turn off their cell phones.
The malls had planned to continue their study through the Christmas buying sea-
son, but an intervention by Senator Charles Schumer of New York prompted them to
stop collecting data after only three days. The senator issued a statement that said, in
part, “Personal cell phones are just that—personal. If retailers want to tap into your
phone to see what your shopping patterns are, they can ask you for your permission
to do so” [63].
Sharon Biggar, CEO of Path Intelligence, the British firm that made the cell phone
tracking equipment, responded to the senator's statements by pointing out that online
retailers track far more information about their customers' shopping habits without
asking them for permission. “We are simply seeking to create a level playing field for
offline retailers,” she said [63].
In February 2012, programmer Arun Thampi in Singapore discovered that the app for
the social networking site Path was uploading his iPhone's address book without first
getting his permission. Thampi wrote on his blog, “I'm not insinuating that Path is doing
something nefarious with my address book but I feel quite violated that my address book
is being held remotely on a third-party service” [64].
David Morin, the CEO of Path, initially replied to Thampi's post by saying that the
purpose of collecting the information was to make it easier for people to connect with
