[liberationtech] Euclid Analytics

[Daniel Sieradski]

Ironic that Franken opposes this but is defending the NSA.

--
Daniel Sieradski
ds at danielsieradski.com
http://danielsieradski.com
315.889.1444

Follow me at http://twitter.com/selfagency
Public key http://danielsieradski.com/share/ds_public.key

On Jun 21, 2013, at 1:32 PM, Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joe at cdt.org> wrote:

> Yes, Euclid has been around for a bit, and attracting the ire of US
> Senator Al Franken... Franken wrote a letter with a bunch of questions
> and Euclid responded. Franken was not impressed:
> 
> (links in original)
> 
> http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2341
> 
> Sen. Franken Calls for End to Disturbing Consumer Tracking Trend
> 
> Tech Firm’s Response to Senator’s Inquiry Confirms Need for Privacy
> Protections
> 
> Monday, April 1, 2013
> 
> Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) once again called for an end to
> the practice of tracking consumer movements – through stores, within
> malls, and even from state to state – all without their permission. Last
> month, he pressed a leading analytics firm to stop using technology that
> allows it to track people’s smartphone locations without their
> permission. Today, he released the company’s response, highlighting the
> company’s good faith, but saying it doesn’t go far enough to protect
> consumers.
> 
> “People have a fundamental right to privacy, and tracking a consumer's
> location and movements without permission violates that right,” said
> Sen. Franken. “I believe that Euclid has a sincere desire to protect
> consumer privacy, and I'm pleased that they've pledged to do even more –
> including a promise to never sell consumer data to data brokers.
> However, Euclid's use of opt-out location tracking – regardless of
> whether a consumer actually enters a store equipped with this technology
> – simply doesn't meet the standard of privacy Americans should be able
> to count on. I’m pleased that privacy is a priority for Euclid, but
> their continued use of opt-out technology underscores the need for
> Congressional action to protect consumer location privacy.”
> 
> Euclid, Inc. keeps tabs on consumers as they walk past a store, enter a
> store, or move between a store’s floors by tracking a unique and
> permanent hardware number transmitted by consumers’ smartphones. Unless
> a consumer visits Euclid's website to opt-out of being tracked, their
> location is collected without their permission or knowledge.
> 
> Sen. Franken’s March letter was prompted by news reports suggesting that
> Euclid's technology has used cellphone location technology to track the
> shopping habits of approximately 50 million consumers without their
> permission. Euclid responded promptly to Sen. Franken’s request,
> pledging to protect the privacy of their consumers by:
> 
>    Requiring all participating retailers to post signage telling
> consumers how to opt-out of tracking;
>    Requiring all retailers to undergo a comprehensive education program
> about the opt-out process;
>    Strengthening the company's privacy policy to prohibit the sale,
> rental, or disclosure of any of Euclid’s data to data brokers; and
>    Creating a formal policy outlining the company's requirements for a
> warrant or court order to comply with any request for data.
> 
> In 2011, Sen. Franken introduced the Location Privacy Protection Act to
> protect consumer privacy by requiring companies to get permission before
> collecting or sharing consumers’ location data. The legislation was
> approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in December of 2012, and Sen.
> Franken plans to reintroduce it in the coming months.
> 
> On 6/21/13 1:06 PM, Daniel Sieradski wrote:
>> Has anyone heard about this company Euclid Analytics?
>> 
>> Apparently they track individual behavior over WIFI by logging your
>> phone's MAC address and storing info on where you shop and for how long.  
>> 
>> http://euclidanalytics.com/product/zero/
>> 
>> --
>> Daniel Sieradski
>> ds at danielsieradski.com <mailto:ds at danielsieradski.com>
>> http://danielsieradski.com
>> 315.889.1444
>> 
>> Follow me at http://twitter.com/selfagency
>> Public key http://danielsieradski.com/share/ds_public.key
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at companys at stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Joseph Lorenzo Hall
> Senior Staff Technologist
> Center for Democracy & Technology
> 1634 I ST NW STE 1100
> Washington DC 20006-4011
> (p) 202-407-8825
> (f) 202-637-0968
> joe at cdt.org
> PGP: https://josephhall.org/gpg-key
> fingerprint: BE7E A889 7742 8773 301B 4FA1 C0E2 6D90 F257 77F8
> 
> 
> --
> Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at companys at stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/attachments/20130621/c8d803cd/attachment.html>