Colleges Mine Data on Their Applicants
To determine ‘demonstrated interest,’ some schools are tracking how quickly prospective students open email and whether they click links (The WSJ, 1/28/2019)

Some colleges, in an effort to sort through a growing number of applications, are quietly tracking prospective students’ online interaction with the schools and considering it in deciding whom to admit.

Enrollment officers at institutions including Seton Hall University, Quinnipiac University and Dickinson College know down to the second when prospective students opened an email from the school, how long they spent reading it and whether they clicked through to any links. Boston University knows if prospective students RSVP’d online to an event—and then didn’t show.

Schools use this information to help determine what they call “demonstrated interest,” or how much consideration an applicant is giving their school. Demonstrated interest is becoming increasingly important as colleges face a rising number of applications and want to protect or improve their yields—the percentage of accepted applicants who enroll. Read More

Analysis: While this article doesn't mention location, does anyone really think this is not on the horizon? How easy it will be to monitor applicants Social Media pages to see what other colleges the applicant has visited, then using that info either for (or more likely against) a positive decision!

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In Sign of Resistance, Chinese Balk at Using Apps to Snitch on Neighbors
New technology rewards citizens for notifying authorities about illegal activity, domestic disputes and other problems, but people are wary of using it (The WSJ, December 30, 2017)

Mao Zedong once hailed Fengqiao in eastern China as a model for “mobilizing the masses” to galvanize Communist Party rule. Under President Xi Jinping, there is an app for that.

Launched in Zhejiang province last year, it offers citizens rewards for information as part of a new government effort to meld old-school totalitarian techniques with 21st century e-commerce, big data and digital surveillance.

There’s just one problem: Many people are wary of using the new technology platform.

The “Safe Zhejiang” app enables users to notify authorities of problems ranging from leaky drains and domestic disputes to traffic violations and illegal publications, in text or photographic form, as long as the informants reveal their location and identity.

In exchange, they get perks including discounts at upmarket coffee shops and coupons for taxi-hailing and music-streaming services, as well as for the Alipay online-payment system, run by the financial affiliate of local tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Read More

Analysis: China is "leading" in generating Privacy concerns. Good to see that the public is resisting to some degree. HOWEVER (and there is always a however in life, Apple just announced (2/24/18) storing iCloud encyrption codes IN China.

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Hundreds Of Local Movie Theaters Will Soon Become Beacon Hot Spots (MarketingLand.com, January 28, 2016)
The days are long gone when the only things you saw at a movie theater were the movie, and previews for movies.
 
These days, it’s not uncommon to watch as much as half an hour of on-screen ads before the movie previews start. Oh, yes, and there’s also a movie.
Those pure movie-only days are getting further away, with the joint announcement today by Mobiquity Networks and Screenvision that they will install and manage iBeacons throughout 300 multiplexes in the U.S. to create the largest movie theater-based mobile ad network.
 
Mobiquity runs what it describes as the biggest network in the U.S. of retail mall-based beacons for mobile ads — nearly 500 shopping malls — and Screenvision has a cinema advertising network covering almost 2300 movie theater complexes in the U.S., representing 14,200 screens. Discussions are now underway with marketers about specific ad/marketing campaigns...

Beacons will be used, instead of GPS-based location marketing, so that mobile marketers can determine exactly where the moviegoer is, inside the complex.
 
Beacons employ low-power Bluetooth transmissions to emit a location ID to a listening mobile app, which then communicates the location via cellular data or WiFi to the marketer’s server, and receives back location-specific marketing. Because the beacon has a specific location, the location can be very specific inside a large building, as opposed to, say, geo-fencing that just locates a facility.
 
iBeacons cannot be monitored remotely without modification, but Screenvision Chief Marketing Officer John McCauley said theater personnel will keep an eye on them.
 
The customer needs to have a supported app installed, such as two movie-related ones, MovieTickets or Dealflicks. Meckley said that some retail shopping apps used in the Mobiquity networks, like Shopular, will also work. The apps do not need to be open to receive the beacon’s location or to receive and show push notifications, as long as the user has opted-in.
 

A moviegoer who just left a screening might receive additional marketing relating to the movie they’ve just seen, such as a coupon for a Star Wars mask. Or they might get a coupon for an ad they saw earlier in the theater. If they are using the MovieTickets or Dealflicks app, and they bought their tickets through that service, they might receive an ad or coupon related to the movie as they’re waiting in line to see it.  Another possibility: they might be pinged with a coupon for a discount on a large popcorn as they walk by the concession stand. The companies said the user engagement data will be shared with the theaters.

 
At this point, you might be shuddering — as I am — at the thought that moviegoers may also be receiving ads or coupons while they’re in the theater, and maybe even during the movie...
 
“At this point,” Meckley told me, the mobile marketing will not be delivered “while people are in their seats.” He added that he doesn’t “envision that, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen,” if marketers can find a way to enhance the screen experience.
 
As someone who has also been involved in interactive media for several decades, the fact that many movie theaters utilize digital video projection these days raises the interesting possibility that there could be interaction between your smart phone and what’s on the screen...
 
Meckley suggested there might be interactive quizzes communicating with what’s on the screen, or voting on alternative endings. Read More
 
Analysis: This is scary on so many levels. First, from a personal consumer experience perspective, there is way too much advertising already. Second, that they can pinpoint exactly where a person is in the theatre is unnerving, PARTICULARLY since the odds are high that the person a) did not knowingly opt-in (despite the supposed opt-in policy, since it could be buried in the fine print of a ticket acquisition app), and b) once started, there is no way advertisers are going to stop at promoting only pre-movie ads, e.g. there will be pings, pops, and music blurbs constantly going off during the movie. Not to mention that the app doesn't have to be open for the app to use your location, your data will be shared after the fact with theatre owners (for more spam once you get home!), AND it's possible for the operator to monitor your theatre activity real time. If theatre owners want a sure way of driving even more customers back to their homes, this is it!

Privacy - Since LBS' inception, the risk of major privacy incidents have been a key risk. Now it's IoT's turn. This page tracks major location and IoT-related developments. 

For a more detailed analysis of Location Data Privacy issues go to our sister site at http://davidhwilliams.com/locationdataprivacy.html.

LAST UPDATE: 1/28/19