People Tracking Conference 2010

By Natasha Léger | Published July 2, 2010

A GPS chip will be in every device. That was the take away from the first People Tracking & Location conference held in Chicago June 22nd - 23rd. The title of the conference was controversial and certainly played a role in attracting approximately eighty industry executives. People will be tracked voluntarily or involuntarily for a variety reasons: GPS in sneakers to track wandering Alzheimer’s patients, wristbands on kids in the event they are lost or stolen, to track assets and stolen vehicles, to provide navigation services, e911 services, and for social networking and location-based advertising as some examples.

Speakers and panel sessions discussed viable LBS business models, privacy concerns, and device issues and indoor location opportunities. The conference featured a top line-up of speakers, including senior level executives from Nokia, Zoombak, Verizon Wireless, Xora, Qualcomm, Bosch Sensortec, Wavemarket (now Location Labs), Sense Networks, SecuraTrac and many more. Attendees from across the industry - mobile carriers, chip providers, solution providers, mapping companies, government agencies and platform providers gathered to discuss the future of the location-based services market.

There were four main threads to the discussions:

The battle of the tracking technology: Cell ID vs. GPS vs. Assisted GPS vs. WLS vs. WiFi
What’s the best business model for LBS products and services? Walled Garden vs. Direct to Consumer vs. Location-based Advertising?
Privacy: what are the best practices for consumers, LBS providers, and enterprise customers?
E911 and universal location

The beauty of location data is that it provides an unprecedented level of context, connection, and convenience as applied to mobile and Internet services. Users tend not to think about the amount of information they are really sharing when they interact with location-based services, and providers of location-based applications may not be aware of all the legal implications involved with location data and location-based services. Mikki Nasch EVP, Business Development, SenseNetworks, said it best: “Location data is your GNA—geographic DNA” which means that we have to get privacy right for the industry to thrive.

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