Re: wifi off to not be tracked

Karl,

I think is very interesting and presents an important point of  
discussion for public privacy. Tracking wi-fi, is very similar in some  
ways to video surveillance, which still represents public -privacy  
issues that  need better resolutions.

There was an article in the UK about the need for notice in tracking  
back in January.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/11/phone_tracking_expert/

I have been discussing this case with the lawyer who was quoted in  
this article.  To make a long story short I am currently testing a  
hypothesis, which has now involved sending in 4 complaints about  
corporate notice (CCTV) practices to the UK ICO's office. The  
compliant is asking the ICO to enforce the requirement for CCTV signs  
to be displayed appropriately according to the 1998 Data Protection,  
in part for the precedent in dealing with the emerging wi-fi tracking  
and legal requirements for notice.  The idea being to develop a common  
set of processes for administering consent and control of tracking  
using data protection within the context of tracking. I am hoping for  
a response next week and am looking to work towards a general  
framework for privacy in surveillance and best practices for notice.

One question that has come up is weather or not this information  
collected is personal, in what ways does your wi-fi beceome PII and  
require data protection?   My contention here is that this tracking  
data is retro-active, in that, in the future historical tracking data  
can be made personal.  Therefore, I am wondering if this type of  
tracking should be classified as personal data when it is collected.    
The companies performing these services argue that the data tracked is  
not personal.

Thanks for this link,

Mark

On 21 Apr 2012, at 13:06, Karl Dubost wrote:

> As soon we wave a flag, we are identifiable. This time a company  
> (Navizon) which is using WIFI device signature to geolocate people  
> "anonymously" until the device signature is a known identifier for  
> their identity.
>
> http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27784/?p1=blogs
>
> -- 
> Karl Dubost - http://dev.opera.com/
> Developer Relations, Opera Software
>
>