Need to Know: How mobile data collection benefits the consumer

On this week’s “TechKnow,” Kosta Grammatis learns more about how companies and small businesses are using data collected from customers' mobile phones to analyze business practices and make decisions about their client base. Using consumer data to tailor marketing is not a new concept, targeted ads have been appearing on email servers and Facebook home pages for years. However, a new era in which brick and mortar companies like bars and retail shops can get personal information about its patrons through open wi-fi or bluetooth connections raises many questions about security and the boundaries between consumerism and privacy.

Many consumers are understandably concerned and suspicious about surreptitious data collection by corporations and small businesses alike, but are there any circumstances in which this data collection and analysis actually benefits the consumer?

DELIVERING RELEVANCE

Many companies that employ some form of data collection and analysis maintain that it is done as a service to their consumer, in order to better tailor their products or services to each individual customer.

"Consumers are worried about our use of data, but they're pissed if I don't deliver relevance,” said Macy’s Vice President of customer strategies Julie Bernard at a 2013 D2 Digital Dialogue conference. “How am I supposed to deliver relevance and magically deliver what they want if I don't look at the data?"

By better analyzing foot traffic and customer behavior, companies can customize the shopping experience based not on generic marketing advice, but rather how their specific customers interact with their brand. Ideally, this information will help improve both profit margins and the consumer experience.

A PAPERWORK-LESS FUTURE

In a blog for digital paperwork service Canvas, Devon Drennen gives an example of how mobile data collection could help eliminate antiquated paperwork for workers on oil rigs, but his central argument could be applied to other occupational headaches. Using a mobile wi-fi connection to track “on the clock” workers at a company could eliminate the need for manual timecards and give employers more accurate payroll data.

PROVING YOUR INNOCENCE

In 2011, a motorist reported getting out of a speeding ticket by using GPS tracking information from his Google Tracks phone application to prove that he was driving the speed limit. In his own account, the driver acknowledges that the judge let him off based on lack of evidence from the arresting officer, but the case raises an interesting question: If your phone knows where you are at all times, can it help prevent you from being convicted of a crime you didn’t commit? Future cases will help establish a legal precedent, but a future of mobile data-based alibis doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

To learn more about companies are collecting and using mobile phone data, watch "TechKnow," Saturday 7ET/4PT.