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++ Electronic Gadgets Threaten Consumer Privacy ++
“Popular electronic gadgets with links to the Internet
pose a mounting threat to consumer privacy”, said Richard
Smith, chief technology officer for the Privacy Foundation,
a Denver-based, nonprofit advocacy group. Recently a variety
of gadgets have come to market that collect consumer data
that are directly fed back to corporate marketing systems.
Such everyday “spy” devices include fitness monitors that
track heart rates and display exercise related advertising,
digital music players that record listening habits and
wristwatches and wireless surveillance cameras, as well as
location tracking mobile phones and other monitoring tools.
As example of such potentially invasive electronic gadgets,
Smith singled out SportBrain, an exercise-monitoring device
that can be worn on a person’s belt, storing data that can
later be transmitted to the company’s web site. The main
motivation for developing such devices he theorizes may be
explained by the idea of direct marketing, which leads companies
to illicitly collect unprecedented amounts of data on consumer
behavior. Smith sees data-collecting, privacy-invading devices
pushing their way into every walk of daily life. “What concerns
me is how much surveillance companies are building into everyday
devices”, he said. “Most people don’t understand how far this has
already gone.”
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DIGITAL ECOLOGY