The silent advent of UWB technology and its implications for privacy
Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has been around for over a century. However, in 1920 it was restricted to defense and expressly banned for commercial use. It was not until 2002 that the FCC enacted regulations allowing unlicensed use.
Even then, the power was severely restricted to prevent interference with preferred technologies, wifi, and Bluetooth. But today, UWB is emerging as a contender.
As with most emerging technologies, it stands to be a trojan horse filled with benefits for consumers and marketers and significant privacy risks for consumers.
What is UWB?
UWB is like wifi. It’s a “short-range, wireless communication protocol that operates through radio waves.” However, it operates at higher frequencies that enable more accurate spatial and directional data.
It acts like a radar that scans continuously to identify objects that it can communicate with. UWB can then measure the object’s location based on its own location. Then it can sense and measure the movements of the objects to maintain awareness of their real-time location.
How is UWB used?
UWBs can be implanted in smartphones, smartwatches, smart keys, or tiles. It’s also expected to “feature on a wider array of computing devices and internet of things (IoT) peripherals.” Such use might include UWB equipped entry locking or opening devices (e.g., garage opener) that unlock or open when it senses another recognized UWB equipped device like a mobile.
It also has potential health, safety, and security-supporting benefits such as “locating patient in case of critical condition, hikers injured in a remote area or tracking cars.”
UWB also provides the operative capability of COVID-19 contact tracing. Cell phones equipped with it allow location tracking based on proximity to other UWB equipped devices, which can be logged to maintain a history of contact between devices.
Samsung added UWB to its latest cell phones. It also developed its “Nearby Share” app to enable easy file sharing between devices. The UWB and the app allow someone to point their phone at another UWB device to set up a sharing transaction.
Samsung also integrated UWB into its “SmartThings Find” app. It uses an augmented reality capability to give directions to the locations of other UWB-equipped devices.
In April 2021, Apple debuted its “AirTags” tracking devices that “use UWB technology and Apple’s existing network of devices to help owners track down lost or stolen items.” They’re discs small enough to fit in your pocket, wallet, or purse or on your keyring. The tags are tracked using Bluetooth and UWB on apple devices with the “Find My” app, which shows the location of the tags.
The NFL has been using UWB extensively for several years. It put UWB chips in players’ shoulder pads during games to track and analyze their movement patterns.
It also equipped 31 stadiums with UWB sensors around each venue for live tracking of their movements on the field. It yields substantial data on the players’ movements, speed, and plays.
The “stats are processed by Zebra (data processing company) and passed to NFL servers. Then they’re sent to different “broadcast networks, box score providers and Xbox One.”
This kind of application could allow marketers to study and understand customers’ behaviors using the data secured from the UWB sensors. Likewise, the contact tracing model can enable companies to develop detailed psychographic profiles on people by doxing the histories of their physical movements using well-placed UWB sensors.
How does UWB affect privacy?
UWB’s use raises concerns about location privacy. Location privacy is an “information privacy that concerns the claim of individuals to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent location information about them is communicated to others.”
UWB is not new. But its growing commercial and individual use is. Increased use increases “privacy threats associated with the storage of location information.” Companies should understand the ramifications for privacy before mass implementation.
It’s probably a good idea to go further and codify a legal, ethical, and company policy to govern UWB implementation and application. Transparent disclosure of the UWB privacy risks to customers also seems appropriate.
Samsung’s adding UWB to their phones may be a forerunner of mass implementation to potentially unwitting customers, oblivious to the privacy risks the technology carries. The proliferation of UWB in cell phones enables scenarios where the locations and movements of every person with a UWB device can be precisely tracked with UWB sensors mounted in inconspicuous places.
The NFL’s UWB use shows the potential for location and movement tracking to be implemented anywhere — from retail stores to heavily trafficked center centers to residential areas. It can deliver data ripe for AI and machine learning tools to efficiently process the data to develop intimate details on people’s private lives.
How can companies use UWB ethically?
Although the extent is arguable, companies seem to have an ethical obligation to protect privacy. Firms wanting to uphold those obligations in the strictest sense should institute “privacy-by-design principles” to govern the design of UWB equipped products. It entails considering privacy threats and applying measures within the design to mitigate them.
Apple perceived the privacy threats of its AirTags and implemented several measures to prevent stalking using the tags. They “have unique Bluetooth identifiers that frequently rotate to ensure you’re not tracked from place to place.” Location data and history are also not stored on the devices. They’re linked to a person’s Apple ID that no one else can track.
Companies should also address the “role of location data management in the context of privacy preservation.” Location-based services designers, developers, and users should adopt rules and procedures to control the data storage process.
One research team suggested a rule might include an automatic downgrade in the quality of the location that gets transferred to data storage. Another rule might enable the data principal, the user, to inspect the data management and “configure it according to their needs and preferences.”
This approach can serve as a model for companies to apply to ethical implementation and application of UWB. It signifies companies proactively using controls to reduce the risk and impact of privacy threats to users and coopting users into the data management process to give them self-determination over their data and privacy.
Final thoughts.
UWB and other emerging technologies offer substantial opportunities for companies and customers. They can make tasks more convenient and optimize a myriad of operations.
Yet the privacy risks should not be underestimated or ignored. There’s an inherent tension that can be managed by pre-thinking through the implications and pre-deciding left and right limits.
