With mounting concerns about data privacy and the framing of strict regulations against user data breach, a lot of big technology companies are still coming under the scanner due to moves that could compromise data privacy. Location is at the core of all online activities and companies often track a user’s location for location-based services and other features. But what if a company starts tracking a user’s location to predict where the person would head next?
In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica fiasco and post the implementation of GDPR, Facebook has again created a controversy with a series of technology patent filed in the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patents would allow Facebook to track a user’s current logged location and analyses it using past data trends to predict where and at what time the person would be next.
Using this Facebook will correlate patterns with your ‘Friends, on Facebook and using an advanced algorithm would try to predict your whereabouts at any given time. The feature will also work when a user is offline.
For Instance, if you commute every day from your home to your workplace, Facebook will access your last logged location and even when you are not connected to the internet, it will predict your next location using past data.
What the patents say
According to one of the patents which is called ‘Offline Trajectories’, Facebook elaborates how location data would be used for predicting where the person would be and at what time.
“The calculating of the transition probability is based at least in part on previously logged location data associated with the number of users who were at the current location”,’ the patent says.
With the help of machine learning predictive algorithms, Facebook will determine metadata of the use and compute the probability of the user going to the different locations as his data history shows.
Another patent called Location Prediction Using Wireless Signals on Online Social Networks details how using strength of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile signals, future location of the user can be predicted.
Also Read: Facebook data breach and the man behind the public apology of Mark Zuckerberg
Targeted and person-specific advertising
In order to allay defuse any controversy and allay user suspicion, Facebook has said that seeking patents for technologies that they would not implement is a normal process and it should not signify anything regarding the company’s future plans. But this sounds quite ambivalent when it is well known that predicting location has become an important tool for targeted, location-based advertising, which the social media giant.
Yet another patent ”Predicting Locations and Movements of Users Based on Historical Locations for Users of an Online System’ betrays Facebooks statement that it doesn’t plan to incorporate these technologies anytime in the future. The patent is about providing highly targeted advertising to users. The algorithm would make pairs of user’s activity and if the user visits any location mentioned in the pair, he will see an advertisement.
Analyzing the trends of people of same age group and from the same area, social media sites provide information to the advertisers. This could be one of the reasons why Facebook has patented this new technology.
Notwithstanding Facebook’s assurance, the patents clearly show that Facebook is attempting to boost its location-based tracking based so that it could lead to more precise advertising. If Facebook can predict where the user would be going, it can show them more relevant advertisements. And this certainly would increase advertising revenues.
Also Read: Location data sharing: What are the concerns around privacy?
