Most People Don't Want to be Tracked, Traced and Databased: How to Avoid the Prying Eyes

Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located

August 30, 2010

New York Times - Internet companies have appropriated the real estate business’s mantra — it’s all about location, location, location.

But while a home on the beach will always be an easy sell, it may be more difficult to persuade people to start using location-based Web services.

Big companies and start-ups alike — including Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Shopkick and most recently Facebook — offer services that let people report their physical location online, so they can connect with friends or receive coupons.

Venture capitalists have poured $115 million into location start-ups since last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association, and companies like Starbucks and Gap have offered special deals to users of such services who visited their stores.

But for all the attention and money these apps and Web sites are getting, adoption has so far been largely confined to pockets of young, technically adept urbanites. Just 4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent of those who have tried them are men, and 70 percent are between 19 and 35.

“Ever since mobile phones and location technology got started, there have been conversations about the potential for doing something really incredible with this for marketers,” said Melissa Parrish, an interactive marketing analyst at Forrester. “But clearly the question is whether it has reached the mainstream, and it looks like the answer is no.”

Foursquare, for example, which lets people “check in” to public places on their phones and let their friends know where they are, has close to three million users, most of them in cities. Loopt, a similar service, has four million users, about a quarter of whom actively use it. Compare that with Twitter, which has 145 million registered users.

This month, Facebook introduced Places, which adds some Foursquare-like features to its social network. If Places catches on with Facebook’s 500 million users, many think it could bring location-sharing to the masses.

“Clearly location is not yet mainstream — it’s still a younger-demographic phenomenon — but if anyone can change it, Facebook will,” said Sam Altman, chief executive of Loopt.

For now, many people say sharing their physical location crosses a line, even if they freely share other information on the Web.

Stephanie Angelucci, who is 30 and lives in North Beach, Md., updates her MySpace page with photos of her babies, news about her health and testaments to her love of sailing. But she won’t use location apps.

“I don’t like broadcasting where we are or when my husband’s gone, just for safety reasons,” she said. And privacy concerns aside, she doesn’t see the need: “We go to playtime, the park and the grocery store. My life isn’t exciting enough to broadcast where I am and what I do.”

Some users of Foursquare like the spontaneous social gatherings it can inspire, or the way it keeps friends informed of one’s nightlife exploits. But people who are not frequent bar-hoppers need other reasons to check in. The companies that make location-based services are working to add incentives that they hope will reel in a bigger audience.

Sharing location becomes a simple cost-benefit analysis for most people, said Matt Galligan, chief executive of SimpleGeo, which sells location technology to companies building apps.

“There has to be an incentive for giving away very specific information, like coupons or points.”

Shopkick, which became available this month, offers coupons to people when they walk into stores like Best Buy and Macy’s. The application allows users to share their location just with the store and not with other people, and is making inroads with a broader demographic.

Elizabeth Aley, 38, a volunteer in Nixa, Mo., says she is “kind of addicted” to Shopkick. She uses it when she goes to Wal-Mart, Target and the Price Cutter grocery store, to rack up points for entering the stores and to get coupons that she has exchanged for Tide laundry detergent and a Swiffer.

Ms. Aley has chosen to use the app to also reveal her location to her Facebook friends and Twitter followers. The rewards make using the app worthwhile, she said, and the privacy trade-off “really never crossed my mind.”

Gowalla bills itself as a travel game that lets users stamp digital passports at places they visit, find virtual objects in real-world places in a kind of scavenger hunt, or follow trip itineraries in new cities.

“Connecting with friends is nice, but I don’t know that it alone will be enough of a driver” to make a location service widely popular, said Josh Williams, a Gowalla founder.

Foursquare hit upon the idea of allowing people to become “mayor” of places they visit most frequently, touching off competitions among users. Now it is teaming up with big companies and small stores so people see special offers when they check in, whether they are in Brooklyn or Milwaukee.

The company has signed promotional deals like a recent one with the History Channel, which sends users historical facts when they check in at a landmark.

“It’s a misconception that the service is just for city kids,” said Dennis Crowley, a Foursquare founder. “Cities have the densest use, of course, but it happens in the Midwest and all over the world.”

Still, wariness about broadcasting one’s location extends to city dwellers, too. Marsha Collier lives in Los Angeles and writes “For Dummies” books on technology. She uses Whrrl and Foursquare as a way to share information about her life with her online fans and followers — but instead of checking in when she arrives at a place, she checks in as she leaves, to avoid alerting people that she is away from home.

“If I’m going to go work out at the gym, I’ll check in on my way out,” she said. “That way, you’re going to be home soon, so your house won’t be unattended for a long time.”

Others let only a small circle of people see where they are. Ellen Lovelidge, 27, a fishery specialist and D.J. in Washington, carefully chooses who can see her Foursquare updates. She does not plan to use Facebook’s new service, since her Facebook updates go out to a large network of friends, colleagues and family.

“I like Foursquare because I can actually pick who sees where I actually am, compared to Facebook, where I have 1,200 friends,” she said. “I don’t want 1,200 people knowing where I am.”

Facebook does let users pick a smaller subgroup of friends who can see location updates, but Ms. Lovelidge said it would be too much trouble to set that up.

Location services are catching on more quickly with young people, who have grown up posting personal information online.

“The magic age is people born after 1981,” said Mr. Altman of Loopt. “That’s the cut-off for us where we see a big change in privacy settings and user acceptance.”

That rings true for Richard Sherer, 65, a freelance writer in Redondo Beach, Calif.

“I can’t think of anybody who cares where I am every minute of the day except my wife, and she already knows,” he said. “Maybe it’s a generational thing. As we old fogies die off, maybe this will no longer be an issue.”

How to Avoid the Prying Eyes

August 2, 2010

WSJ.com - Visitors to almost every major website are tracked online, a Journal investigation has found. But there are ways to limit the snooping.

Web browsing activity is tracked by use of "cookies," "beacons" and "Flash cookies," small computer files or software programs installed on a user's computer by the Web pages that are visited. Some are useful. But a subset ("third party" cookies and beacons) are used by companies to track users from site to site and build a database of their online activities.

Simple Steps

Major browsers including Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, Mozilla Foundation's Firefox, Google Inc.'s Chrome and Apple Inc.'s Safari, have privacy features. To have the most privacy options, upgrade to the latest version of the browser you use.

Check and Delete Cookies: All popular browsers let users view and delete cookies installed on their computer. Methods vary by browser.

For instance on Internet Explorer 8 (the most widely used browser), go to the "Tools" menu, pull down to "Internet Options" and under the "General" tab there are options for deleting some or all cookies. There might be hundreds, so deleting all might be easiest. But the next time you visit a favorite site, you may need to retype passwords or other login data previously stored automatically by one of those cookies.

Adjust Browser Settings: Once you've deleted cookies, you can limit the installation of new ones. Major browsers let you accept some cookies and block others. To maintain logins and settings for sites you visit regularly, but limit tracking, block "third-party" cookies. Safari automatically does this; other browsers must be set manually.

There are downsides to blocking all cookies. If you frequent sites that require logins, you will have to log in each time you visit.

Internet Explorer lets you set rules for blocking cookies based on the policies of the cookie-placer. One option blocks cookies that don't include a privacy policy; another blocks cookies that can save your contact information without your approval. The control is under "Tools/Internet Options/Privacy."

No major browsers let you track or block beacons without installing extra software known as "plug-ins," as described under advanced steps.

Turn On "Private" Browsing: All major browsers offer a "private browsing" mode to limit cookies. Chrome calls it "Incognito." Internet Explorer calls it "InPrivate Browsing," but this option is available only in the latest version, IE8.

Private browsing doesn't block cookies. It deletes cookies each time you close the browser or turn off private browsing, effectively hiding your history.

Private browsing isn't selective. It deletes all cookies, whether useful or not. So you might want to use private browsing selectively, such as when looking at health-related information.

Monitor "Flash Cookies": Another kind of cookie uses Adobe Systems Inc.'s popular Flash program to save information on your computer. Flash is the most common way to show video online. As with regular cookies, Flash cookies can be useful for remembering preferences, such as volume settings for videos. But marketers also can use Flash cookies to track what you do online.

To identify the Flash cookies on your computer and adjust your settings, you need to go to an Adobe website: www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. You can delete Flash cookies stored on your computer and specify whether you want to accept future third-party Flash cookies.

The downside of blocking third-party Flash cookies: Some sites won't let you watch videos or other content.

Advanced Steps

Install Privacy "Plug-ins": Small programs called "add-ons" or "plug-ins" can help maintain privacy. Some let you monitor trackers that can't be seen through the browser; others allow you to delete cookies on a regular schedule.

Not all browsers can use all plug-ins. And some plug-ins can be tricky to set up. With those caveats, some plug-ins may be worth a look:

Abine: Developed by a Cambridge, Mass., start-up of the same name, it attempts to control several types of trackers. Once installed, the program will warn you when a site is placing cookies or Flash cookies on your machine. You can also see and block a third type of tracker called a Web "beacon" (sometimes called a "bug"). This is an invisible object embedded in a page that can interact with cookies. It's available only in "test" versions, so this is only for people who don't mind experimenting a bit with software. For Firefox, go to addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11073/. For Internet Explorer, users need to request an invitation at getabine.com.

Better Privacy: This plug-in offers control over Flash cookies. It doesn't block them, but lets you set rules for deleting them—a distinction that can be helpful if you frequent sites that require you to use third-party Flash cookies to see their content. Better Privacy (available only for Firefox) is at addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/.

Ghostery: Available at ghostery.com, it helps control beacons. It alerts you when there's a beacon on a page you're viewing, tells you who placed it and details the company's privacy policy. With Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can then block the beacon from capturing information on your computer. That feature isn't available for Chrome.

Controlling Ads

Users troubled by targeted advertising can block or limit the ads being shown. Note: These tools don't necessarily restrict tracking. Some ad networks may still collect data on your browsing behavior and share it with others, even if you instruct them not to show you targeted ads.

The Network Advertising Initiative, an industry group of marketing companies, lets computer users opt out of targeted ads from about 50 ad networks at networkadvertising.org.

If you opt out, you won't be shown ads tied to your browsing behavior from the member networks. But you'll still see ads, which may be placed based on criteria such as your location.

PrivacyChoice LLC, an independent group, maintains a Web site (privacychoice.org/choose) that covers 152 ad networks. You can opt out of most by clicking a button there. For some, you'll need to download a plug-in, but it works only with Firefox.

Ironically, these opt-out systems work by installing a cookie on your computer. That cookie tells ad networks to stop sending targeted ads to your computer. Because these systems rely on a cookie to work, you'll need to opt out all over again any time you delete cookies from your machine.