{"id":1227,"date":"2011-03-01T13:38:32","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T19:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2011-11-04T08:26:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T14:26:29","slug":"att-begins-service-to-text-users-in-certain-locations-nytimes-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/att-begins-service-to-text-users-in-certain-locations-nytimes-com\/","title":{"rendered":"AT&T Begins Service to Text Users in Certain Locations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Source:<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the New York Times,\u00c2\u00a0AT&T is going to launch a text-message service to send SMS messages to customers in certain locations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Um, hell no!<\/p>\n

It’s called “ShopAlerts” and is designed to allow “brand-partners” (i.e. HP, Kmart, JetBlue, S.C. Johnson, etc.) to send advertisements and coupons to customers who happen to be in range of the “geo-fence” (a pre-defined geographic area around a particular place) for that brand.<\/p>\n

The service is opt-in, which makes it a little less about. The troubling thing is it is just another way for people to give up their privacy.<\/p>\n

If you allow a service to track when you are *in* a particular place, then by default it will also know when you are *not in* that place. Checking in on Foursquare should be enough of a trigger to send these kinds of advertisements – it shouldn’t be based on a passive location awareness.<\/p>\n

In fairness, JetBlue does intend to use their JetBlue Go Places mobile app to offer their program’s points via check-in. According to the article, there is no mention of similar action-requirements. S.C. Johnson intends to put a geo-fence around Wal-Mart to [passively] offer their discounts.<\/p>\n

It all sounds eerily similar to the Minority Report’s retina scanners in the shopping malls. Let’s hope the day never comes when you can walk past an adult novelty shop and the on-screen display asks how that sex toy you bought 2 weeks ago has worked out for you. This technology, if extrapolated to track purchases as a response to the ad, combined with the already-present knowledge of your receipt’s items would surely enable such a world.<\/p>\n

Don’t opt-in. It’s already easy enough to track you, without making it constantly available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the New York Times,\u00c2\u00a0AT&T is going to launch a text-message service to send SMS messages to customers in certain locations. Um, hell no! It’s called “ShopAlerts” and is designed to allow “brand-partners” (i.e. HP, Kmart, JetBlue, S.C. Johnson, etc.) to send advertisements and coupons to customers who happen to be in range of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[706,528,3],"tags":[840,556,842,592,846,845,847,848,712,844,200,841,843],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacys-a-joke","category-security-tech","category-tech","tag-advertisements","tag-att","tag-geo-fencing","tag-hp","tag-jetblue","tag-kmart","tag-location-based-marketing","tag-presence-tracking","tag-privacy","tag-scjohnson","tag-security","tag-shopalerts","tag-walmart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/28Ads-blog4801.jpg?fit=480%2C304&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prOO4-jN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1298,"url":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/2011\/04\/if-i-can-block-spam-email-why-not-spam-commercials\/","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":0},"title":"If I can block spam email, why not spam commercials?","author":"[[Neo]]","date":"April 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The viewer should be able to mark commercials as SPAM, False-Advertisement, or Irrelevant to see more poignant commercials.","rel":"","context":"In "Spyware"","block_context":{"text":"Spyware","link":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/category\/security-tech\/spyware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"MyCleanPC.com installs spyware and viruses","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/mycleanpc-com1.jpg?fit=477%2C283&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":368,"url":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/2009\/05\/free-kfc-coupon-with-a-side-of-spyware\/","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":1},"title":"[UPDATEDx2] Free KFC Coupon […with a side of Spyware]","author":"[[Neo]]","date":"May 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE #2: Apparently they switched it back to the spyware method. I thought they learned their lesson. I guess not. It looked like they replaced the download link that went to coupons.com with a pdf file. However, I think someone defaced the site and put that link on there because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/category\/security-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spybot S&D on CouponBar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/2009-05-06_0829-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1026,"url":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/2011\/01\/configuring-your-facebook-profile-privacy-settings\/","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":2},"title":"Configuring your Facebook Profile Privacy Settings","author":"[[Neo]]","date":"January 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've never logged out of Facebook and looked at your profile page, you may be surprised at how much info you're sharing with the world.","rel":"","context":"In "How To"","block_context":{"text":"How To","link":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/category\/how-to\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Facebook Security Logo - Source: allfacebook.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/facebook-sec-logo1-116x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1095,"url":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/2011\/02\/using-friend-lists-for-facebook-privacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":3},"title":"Using Friend Lists for Facebook Privacy","author":"[[Neo]]","date":"February 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"To achieve a more granular level of privacy on Facebook, you can create Custom Friend Lists and use them in your privacy settings","rel":"","context":"In "How To"","block_context":{"text":"How To","link":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/category\/how-to\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/2011-02-02_1531.png?fit=1002%2C636&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/2011-02-02_1531.png?fit=1002%2C636&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/2011-02-02_1531.png?fit=1002%2C636&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/2011-02-02_1531.png?fit=1002%2C636&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":881,"url":"https:\/\/thepizzy.net\/blog\/2011\/01\/how-to-handle-online-harassment-cyber-stalking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1227,"position":4},"title":"How to Handle Online Harassment & Cyber Stalking","author":"[[Neo]]","date":"January 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"About 15 years ago, having an email address and\/or an instant messenger screen name meant you were riding the cutting edge of the internet. 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