Nowhere to hide – mobile phones end privacy

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“It’ll get worse before it gets better,” mobile industry expert Chetan Sharma told NBC News. “Unless leaders step up and work on a framework that works for all consumers, it’s going keep getting worse and worse until it is unbearable.”

This prediction may sound grim, but alarming examples are mounting.

A company called Renew recently enabled the LCD-toting “smart trash bins” in London to record the unique MAC addresses — broadcast in order to facilitate network connections — of devices in the hands or pockets of passersby.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Defense

In a single day, just a fraction of the network of smart bins collected data from nearly a million devices. By comparing when a device was in range of one bin to when it appeared at another, or for how long it stayed in range, the movements of these devices could be determined with a high degree of accuracy. All of this happened without a single person noticing — no consent, no warning, no opportunity to opt out.

The scary part is that if Renew hadn’t said anything, no one would even have known the bins were collecting all of this data. You can’t opt out of something you don’t know is happening to you.