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		<title>Digital signage networks must guarantee viewer privacy</title>
		<description>Discuss Digital signage networks must guarantee viewer privacy</description>
		<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy</link>
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			<title>Hieronymus says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-654</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I agree with Bill. I think this is one of many indicators that converging media poses an acute privacy problem in the future. Although the real effect won't be felt for some years to come, perhaps as much as a generation, it will constitute a profound societal change when the panopticon finally does arrive. It will be far easier and less expensive to install privacy protections early on rather than trying to retrofit those protections into an established system.
It also appears, Bill, that someone in the privacy advocacy community takes the future of digital signage as seriously as you do:
http://blog.cdt.org/2008/09/15/digital-wallpaper/#more-393]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Hieronymus</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:06:15 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-654</guid>
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			<title>Francois Reeves says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-653</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I wish I could have expressed my views as eloquently as James Tenser did. I think this issue should be investigated further. Bill, once again, you have succeeded in raising some very thought provoking points. Perhaps you should have an "Ask Bill" input form on this site or allow users to open up threads of their own. Nice point too Laura about shops not being truly "public".]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Francois Reeves</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:24:25 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-653</guid>
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			<title>Laura Davis-Taylor says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-652</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I'm with Bill 100% on this one guys. I'm also trying to help raise awareness on this because it is indeed a slippery slope and must be managed correctly.
We must all embrace that no one FORCES an individual to walk into a retail store--it's not a public space. And if most retailers engage in measurement practices that feel creepy and uncomfortable to a slice of the population, they do it at the detriment of the whole. Also, if the consumer voice rears up and cries foul, some retailers will NOT utilize these practices as a competitive edge! And then who wins? We all do...because these systems can truly help us better serve the customer if they are activated responsibly and sensibly. Which comes right back to Bill's key point--that we need to look at this issue hard and set some guiding principles that will help us ensure slow and steady consumer acceptance.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Laura Davis-Taylor</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:32:31 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-652</guid>
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			<title>Bill Gerba says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-651</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hi James,
Great comment, very well laid-out. I'd like to provide a point-by-point reply:
1. You're technically correct, the right to privacy is not guaranteed by the US Constitution. However, several Supreme Court rulings have deemed it a "fundamental human right" thus protected by the 9th Amendment. I might also make the case that privacy is fundamental to many of the other Amendments (in particular the 3rd, 4th and 5th), so there's definitely some legal precedent that needs to be considered here. So question #1 to you: would you prefer that all privacy-related concerns be dictated by the interpretations of judges, or would it maybe be better to have the private sector lay some ground rules first?
2. I also agree that using personal data to improve our lives can't -- and shouldn't -- be stopped. However, your argument is pretty fatalist and assumes that some big entity like Google will be doing all of the collecting, storage and analysis. This would be pretty terrible if true, since if there's one thing we've seen, companies with monopolies can't help but exploit them. We'd be much better off with a distributed system that moves the information -- and our trust -- between several unrelated parties.
3. Yup, also agree. Loyalty programs are a prime example of this. But what's the value of you merely walking past a store window? Is that brief look at the merchandise on display sufficient value for the store owner to pull the information on your RFID badge, or store your image? Is it valuable enough that they should then be able to sell this data upstream to some entity that's building a complete personal profile? It's a slippery slope, and that's what I'm trying to draw attention to here.
4. There is truth to this, but it doesn't mean that the trend is good. And if there is a legal right to privacy (see #1 above), I think it sets a very bad precedent to let that slip away due to ignorance, complacency, or both.
5. Yup, I agree with you there, but they're quickly becoming the de-facto collector and keeper of all sorts of personal info. Don't like it? That's all the more reason to figure out some guidelines and get some group to back them.
6. What about the case you missed - surreptitiously observing your data in a retail store (it's called surveillance, as Steve Russel points out below, and it's already very common). Or, taking that a step further, what about said store collecting that information and then selling it to a company that conglomerates it from all of the places that you visit and shop at?
7. Your best point by far, and I love the concept of "privacy literacy." I think I might have to start using that :) As you've probably guessed, I don't really like any of the answers above any more than you do, but it's important to get a discussion going. Every time I've tried in the past it hasn't gotten anywhere, but perhaps now that Google is getting into all sorts of privacy-related trouble the time is right.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
-Bill]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Bill Gerba</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:31:07 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-651</guid>
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			<title>Steve Russell says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-650</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Bill,
I think I come down more on the side of Francois and James. My question is how you feel about the issue of surveillance cameras in general. As you know there is a very large surveillance industry that continues to grow. You seem to be drawing a distinction between collecting data to observe criminal behavior and collecting data by marketers. Local, state and federal government agencies are already gathering this data and presumably not using it for nefarious purposes. Do you object to the existance of cameras in the public square period or do you object to the selected uses of the data being collected, i.e., ok if collected by security departments but not ok if collected by marketing departments? In any event I think it is great that you have addressed this issue and the potential for abuse.
Steve]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Steve Russell</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:32:39 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-650</guid>
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			<title>James Tenser says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-649</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I'm a big fan of yours, Bill, but like Francois, I believe we all must reexamine our assumptions about privacy. Scary as it may seem, Google's argument is probably largely correct.
First, is privacy in public spaces a fundamental right? I'd argue no. Any activity that takes place in the context of cultural interaction (including on the World Wide Web) will be subject to observation and interpretation by others - individuals and institutions.
Second, this can't be stopped anyway. Regardless of which body is placed in charge of protecting privacy, the very act of concentrating information toward this end effectively defeats all hope of true and complete privacy. We've passed through a one-way door on this and we all had better learn to get used to it.
Third, we all willingly give up bits of privacy all the time when it provides us with value. Privacy and personalization are two sides of a coin. If you want personalized service or custom products, you must share something about your person with the provider.
Fourth, the younger generation, due to their innate Web literacy, has a very different attitude about expectation of privacy versus us baby boomers. Witness the social networking phenomenon. Us older folks tend to worry about privacy in the abstract, while younger folks don't fret about it.
Fifth, I don't necessarily want Google in charge of my personal information, any more than I want an Orwellian government agency to "protect" it.
Sixth, openly observing my public behavior in a retail store or transit hub is fair game - as long as there is full disclosure that it is happening. Surreptitiously observing my behavior in a hotel room is not fair game. Neither is mining my bank transactions for purchasing patterns without my knowledge.
Finally, we have an obligation to educate ourselves and the public about this. Just as we teach media literacy, we need to teach privacy literacy. What's needed here is not a spurious standard guarded by institutions that cannot be trusted. Instead we need realistic understanding that no consumer is an island; that what we do in public will have consequences, good and bad; and that old notions of privacy are no longer reliable.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>James Tenser</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:57:39 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-649</guid>
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			<title>Bill Gerba says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-648</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hi Francois,
The problem with your argument is that it's based on today's practical limitations. While Visa currently might not have the ability to link together the myriad of personalized information available, tomorrow's certainly will. By 2020, computers will be nearly 100 times more powerful than they are today, and even more pervasive. Now, the credit card industry is regulated to some extent, so Visa isn't likely to be the catalyst for change here. But not so for retail marketers and online marketers, many of whom are already collecting billions of pieces of consumer data every day.
My argument isn't that this is a big problem **now**, it's that if we don't address it, it **will** be a big problem in the future.
Thomas Jefferson once said: "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
There's no reason to think that sentiment applies **only** to governments. It's perhaps even more true in the private sector.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Bill Gerba</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:31:10 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-648</guid>
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			<title>Francois Reeves says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-647</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Dear Bill,
This time, and this time only, you've gone overboard. Cameras don't associate names with people just yet (except for known belligerent individuals scanned by airport equipment...). Think about years of VISA, MasterCard, Amex, CitiGroup, etc. electronic consumer transactions. Orwellian indeed, 1984 galore. Yet, I know that data sets are so huge that they cannot be associated to individuals, they are parsed for trends, patterns and large scale behavourial intelligence. The sheer amount of digital signage traffic would guarantee privacy. Analysis would take days if not weeks. What has a consumer to hide anyway? I want my purchasing patterns to be analyzed so I get relevant offers. Whether I consent or not, they are analyzed anyhow--- in a large sense. You want privacy, use cash. You want public privacy (contradiction) wear Groucho Marx glasses. 1984 was a grey vision of the world, 2008 is much shinier.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Francois Reeves</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:42:21 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-647</guid>
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			<title>Annie says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-646</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Bill,
This is timely and well said. I think it's always in the industry's best interest to act responsibly -- and yes, they don't always do so, but a push in the right direction helps a lot.
Annie]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Annie</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:14:28 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/673-digital-signage-networks-must-guarantee-viewer-privacy#comment-646</guid>
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