Telecom Rebirth

I just read an article about two malls (Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va.) that are tracking customers movements throughout the mall by monitoring their cell phones.

There are claims that this practice is not invasive; that is does not gather personally identifiable information, and does not correlate the phone to its owner.

Its An Invasion of Privacy and Trespassing on Personal Property

It is my position that this practice of monitoring shoppers by connecting to their cellphones is a serious invasion of privacy - even an invasion and trespass of property.

Let’s rewind a few months and recall the News International phone hacking scandal that shocked the UK and rocked the massive News Corporation and the Murdoch family.

With this equipment set to connect to individuals’ cell phones, what is to prevent misuse of this technology?

Its Not the Same As Video Monitoring

Another argument to posit this practice as “kosher” states that customers are commonly monitored by video cameras and motion sensors.

That practice is obvious - if one ventures into a public place, they obviously can be seen and monitored. Its clear by definition!

Monitoring someone’s cell phone is totally different. It can be concealed and is therefore totally off-limits from alien networks.

Understanding Customer Behavior Is Important, But This Is Not the Way

Its is clear as day that understanding customer behavior will benefit both customers and retailers. However, connecting to unsuspecting cell phone owners is not the right method.

It would be much more appropriate to instead offer customers a wifi or rfid widget when they enter the mall and offer a $5 coupon or similar honorarium for participation. That way, customers are actively opting in to the monitoring process and are also aware of what is happening. Simply posting a notice sign on the wall as reported is just not acceptable.

This privacy and cell phone trespass snafu has reached the media outlets and I would not be surprised one bit if the trade commission or FCC gets involved. Its just not right to connect to someones electrical device without their knowledge or active acceptance. I’d compare it to breaking into someone’s house - its wrong even if the trespasser wants to observe - not to steal or identify the house owner(s).

Addendum

What About Manufacturer and Wireless Network Responsibilities?

I also have to wonder - how are malls even able to connect to cell phones? Shouldn’t manufacturers and wireless network operators responsible for the security of their customers?

Arent’t any and all electromagnetic signals created by a cellphone only meant to be received by intended target, and not intercepted by unauthorized third parties? Is this a breach of the wiretap law? Could the perpetrators be committing a crime?

I am not a lawyer (though I’m considering going to law school), but this seems to be a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.

My Android-powered Android-X went through an upgrade process to update the Android operating system yesterday. I’m pleased with the results thus far. While so far, so good, I refrain from casting final judgment until I’ve used the new Android OS for a couple of weeks. I’ve found that with devices like these, you need to use it, not just play with it, to get a true feel for how it works.

Before proceeding with a review of Android 2.3.3 on the Motorola Droid X, I should mention that to me, this was an unexpected update. I hadn’t heard about it at all, which is in stark contrast to the anticipation and near countdown to the release of Froyo. I actually thought this would be just an application update, but it insisted on rebooting, where I was greeted with an Android logo and an arrow to my device.

Android.org states of 2.3.3:

"Android 2.3.3 is a small feature release that adds several improvements and APIs to the Android 2.3 platform."

Here’s what I’ve noted in the first day of using the new OS:

An Updated and Improved User Interface

The new user interface for the Andriod is awesome. The reversed colors on the phone keypad look great, and there are new, bright colors - like the slick “3G” in the top menu bar. Looks good, really good.

The updated web WebKit-powered browser is looking very nice. It has a “buzz-saw” “busy-fetching-the-website” icon, which is a nice change to the usual pin-wheel animated icon. The buzz-saw is featured in a couple of different places where the Android must ask the user to wait, such as the check for system updates.

Application Compatibility and New Crapware

I’m pleased to report that all the applications I’ve tried on the Droid X still work:

• Audible
• Bank of America
• Hacker’s Keyboard

I’ll keep updating the list as I try out more applications.

Unfortunately, there is new crapware installed on the Droid X, specifically the “V” Apps app, which is a rehashed version of Verizon’s V-Cast system, which I don’t want and have never wanted.

What I Want to See

GPS Fix

There are problems with the previous Android OS running my Droid X. Most notable is the “Searching for GPS” delay that incapacitates Google Maps from providing navigation assistance. It just waits and waits. I’ve never found a fix except for a reboot. It works perfectly fine again after a system reboots.

Random Reboots

Speaking of rebooting the Droid X, it occasionally and randomly reboots on its own while I’m using it. I’ve never found pattern for when or why this happens. Regardless, I want it to stop.

Battery Life

I’m hoping the battery life improves when the device is not in use. I would hope that it could last a couple of days if I only use it once or twice during that time. In my experience, it only seems to keep kicking for one day, no matter how often or how little I use it.

I’ve had an itch that has been building in irritation and now its time to scratch: mobile websites have rubbed me the wrong way.

The Situation

Last night while trying to get to my hotel, I needed the address, so I googled for it, specifically the name of the hotem (the Marriott), and included the town where I knew my reservation to be. Based upon the summaries included with each search results, I could see that one included the exact information I needed, but when I clicked on it, I was redirected to the homepage of the mobile site.

While I appreciate the value and attraction of mobile websites, I really do not like my expectations getting hijacked.

I expected the resulting page to be the one I searched for, but instead it was the homepage for the mobile site. Then I have to search again?

Mobile Websites

Yes, I do like the idea of mobile websites. They can be much easier to navigate than desktop websites when using a tiny viewport. However, if a visitor is arriving from a search engine to a page other than the homepage, they are likely not ready to start navigating, but are targeting. Automatically redirecting them to the homepage is worse than presenting them with the targeted page in desktop mode.

In my experience, not that many websites engage in this practice of automatically redirecting users’ to mobile websites, but it appears to be a trend. I’ve only found a few to do it, the first couple I can’t remember, but Marriott.com is the straw that broke this camel’s back. Its been enough to cause me to write this blog rant - let’s put it that way.

Mobile websites are certainly a newfangled feature that web design companies are selling to their customers. So I expect to see more of them. Hopefully developers will not continue to overlook this important factor.

I have seen some web designs that are able to display properly on the desktop and on mobile devices. In those cases, no redirection is necessary. In my humble opinion, that’s the best option.

Conclusion

Its simply an issue of usability. Understand user expectations. Do not disrupt them.

After writing this blog post rant, I realize how different browsing a site is from visiting a page that has been searched for. They really are totally different.

So many times do we web developers assume that visitors are browsing, when actually they are simply looking for a single page. Either the page has the information they are looking for, or it doesn’t. Either way, they probably aren’t going to go browsing around, unless prompted. In that case, there is certainly the risk of disrupting the users’ expectations in a different way.

If you’ve experienced a mobile web redirect that you found annoying, please, do tell!

In a surprising move, Google has announced its plans to buy Motorola. I wish I owned some Motorola shares! Do’h!

Why is Google buying Motorola? The media analysts say its for the intellectual property, and they are probably right. But they are also buying manufacturing and supply chain assets. Could this put them in an Apple position, controlling both hardware and software power.

Google has some of the best and brightest, but beyond search, their online offerings are not doing so well. Android is experiencing amazing success, but they are facing some serious competition from Apple, as well as IP challenges from several angles, even besides the Oracle lawsuit which emerged from Oracle’s purchase of Sun Microsystems.

Honestly, Google should have bought Sun Microsystems too. Why didn’t they?

Earlier this week, my Droid X phone lost all network connectvity. Seriously, ALL network connectivity. It struck me as bizarre, because one of my co-workers has the exact same phone, also on Verizon Wireless, and his was working fine.

I tried every trick in the book - airplane mode on / off, power cycling, removal of the battery for 5 minutes, even toggling the data sync settings.

After no results, I decided to give Verizon Wireless customer support a try; yes my last resort! Surprisingly, they were helpful.

Turns out that Verizon Wireless was experiencing a data outage - but only for customers with usage controls! Odd, huh? I asked them to turn off my usage controls and that fixed the problem.