Powerful Marketing Tool or Threat to Privacy?

MIKE MOTZ

Sidney Sun-Telegraph

SIDNEY-- A controversy popped up in Sidney when last week's City Council meeting featured a presentation by City of Sidney Economic Development Director Brandy Stone about purchasing a subscription for Placer.AI., an intelligence software product that promises to deliver valuable information to the Economic Development Department. This information would enable Sidney Economic Development workers as well as local businesses to better assess where visitors and consumers are coming from, what they're buying plus other marketing information that can be used to help grow businesses here in Sidney and Cheyenne County.

Sun-Telegraph Editor & Publisher Barbara Perez was in attendance and asked to be recognized to speak about the topic. She said that a simple Google search revealed that information on the company showed the potential for abuse of personal data and opened a debate about the safety of this type of new technology, and whether the Council would investigate the information deeper before deciding to move forward with the product. The City Council decided to table the issue until the next City Council meeting on May 28. Stone said she would ask a representative from the company for a conference video call where more questions can be asked about the safety of the product, potential data and information breaches that could occur, and other questions like what is the total cost of the product. Perez stated that was a conflict of interest, saying, "Of course they will try and convince us it is safe".

Others strongly disagree. According to the written testimony of Justin Sherman, Senior Fellow and Research Lead on the Data Brokerage Project at Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, presented to the Massachusetts Legislature Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Hearing on Pending Legislation on June 26, 2023: 

The market for location data threatens Americans' civil rights, privacy, and physical safety. Many companies comprise a multi-billion-dollar market of gathering, sharing, and selling Americans' location information. This includes data brokers selling U.S. persons' smartphone location data- ranging from aggregated data on building foot traffic to real-time, individually identified smartphone geolocations. Data brokers work with mobile apps to get this data. Elsewhere he stated, "Many data brokers, when asked about their data practices, will claim that Americans "consent" to the packaging and sale of their data (including smartphone location data). In particular, brokers will often point out that many apps, websites, and other companies collecting data will include clauses in their privacy policies and terms of service that refer to the possibility of that first-party collector sharing data on consumers. This is a bad-faith and patently ridiculous argument. Most consumers do not read privacy policies, and the burden of doing so is overwhelming." 

Among others, a 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that 81% of Americans agree to privacy policies at least monthly, but that only 9% of Americans say they always read a privacy policy before agreeing to a company's terms and conditions. A 2021 survey by Security.org found that 37% of people skim the documents, 35% don't read them at all, and 16% search for and read a few key parts of the documents; only 11% say they fully read privacy policies before agreeing. 

In a nutshell, most people are not aware of what they are signing up for.

The Sun-Telegraph was first alerted to the potential purchase of a subscription to a location analytics service at a Cheyenne County Visitors Committee meeting on May 2 when Brandy Stone addressed the committee via conference call about the product, which she had been gathering information and evaluating to see if it would be a good fit for Cheyenne County and the City of Sidney to utilize. As explained during this meeting, the product basically "data mines" visitors' smartphones within a designated area and time, and accesses apps on these devices that users have allowed to share data with third parties. The program then collects data and then disseminates that data to subscribers in customized ways. The company, Placer.AI, insists that privacy is protected and that the data disseminated is not necessarily personal data, as the particular person remains anonymous. The company says "Placer monitors tens of millions of mobile devices across the United States to provide data on any physical location." They also say, "Placer sources and curates this proprietary mobile data panel via direct relationships with mobile application partners. We only collect location data from those devices that download a partner app and opt into 24/7 background location sharing. The Visitor's Committee was interested in "piggybacking" onto the City of Sidney's subscription package. It is estimated the program will cost $9500 for the first year. Stone ended the call noting she still had to present the program to the City Council for approval on May 14.

When Stone presented the program to the City council on May 14, it seemed most of the council members were unfamiliar or had little knowledge of the product. It was only when Perez addressed Stone and the council about the potential dangers of this program, in addition to additional costs required for the security of data that had not been mentioned, that the council decided to table the measure. The council decided more time was necessary to look into the service before deciding to move forward on not on the product.

We at the Sun-Telegraph believe that growing the economy of the area is a top concern and also that technology can be a powerful tool to do so, but many questions need to be asked and assurances made regarding the privacy of any information collected. The department heads at the City of Sidney have all been doing a good job keeping their budgets in line and openly providing information to the public, and we also believe the Economic Development Department, the Visitor's Committee, and other various entities do have the best interests of Sidney and Cheyenne County in mind when pursuing these new initiatives. We also believe that the various employees at the City of Sidney need to have the autonomy to pursue new products and services they feel will be beneficiary without every detail coming up to a vote or some type of ballot initiative that slows government processes to a crawl. However, this initiative involves the privacy of Cheyenne County residents and visitors. Although the company says that it only collects "location data", that data will indicate where an individual lives, works, what they purchase and where, and their day-to-day travels and patterns. 

  One need also to consider the issues the City of Ridgecrest in California faced last summer when their town council debated the pros and cons using of Placer.AI. The council's reactions to the service were mixed, but all of the attending audience members of the meeting were concerned about surveillance and privacy. When asked by citizens about whether or not Placer.AI 's founder and CEO Noem Ben-Zvi was a former Mossad agent, the Placer.AI representative refused to answer the question and referred additional questions about the founder and CEO's background to their "HR Department."

We were unable to find the answer about the CEO's background at this point, however the same service currently under review by the Sidney City Council had been involved in a scandal that prompted Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) to get involved. She sent a letter to Ben-Zvi regarding an incident where Placer.AI, or their partners had allegedly sold tracking location information and personal data to anti-abortion groups that used this information to track people going to abortion clinics or Planned Parenthood locations, and sent those people targeted advertisements about adoption and other alternatives to abortion. Warren claimed that shortly after Placer.AI was contacted about the sale of abortion clinic data, the company's response was to "quietly remove the ability to search for Planned Parenthood from its website."  

Placer.AI and similar information brokers currently have thousands of subscribers and are being used throughout the United States, whether people realize it or not. Big-box retail stores are big consumers of this product, and shoppers should be aware of their information being tracked when entering or passing by a location. Perhaps our hesitation is a bit unfounded, and we're not reflexively against and suspicious of any new technological advancement, like some type of modern-day Luddites. Or perhaps this technology has so quickly become ubiquitous, that it's too late now to stop its advance, and we might as well take advantage of the information it offers. There are many benefits for marketing and economic development that this technology can provide, as it is a powerful information-gathering tool. However, there can be many downsides, including but not limited to, privacy concerns, data hacks, and the nebulous nature of Placer.AI's "partners" and their ability to gather personal information.

Add in the fact that this company is based in the Middle East; what type of jurisdiction does the United States have over these companies and the technology they're using? As citizens, we would not be protected under National cyber-security law since this company is not based in the United States.

 Although the concerns about Placer. AI may be early at this stage, we would urge the City Sidney Council and other governmental entities to tread carefully and with their eyes wide open before adopting this service. Perhaps they should ask for information on similar companies available that do essentially the same thing but without as many red flags or concerns. There shouldn't be a rush to a decision on this since there are no deadlines in play; taking time to carefully tread these waters should be of utmost importance.

Perhaps an informal town hall meeting that the public can attend where a simple "All in favor" vote takes place. Even if it just be by a show of hands, the residents of Sidney and citizens of Cheyenne County should have some say in whether or not this program receives a green light as it is ultimately their privacy on the line.