Commentary

500 Million Beacons Coming; Personal Tracking Use Tops Retail

Beacons have been a big deal in retail, and it looks like they may become an even bigger deal elsewhere.

New research says that the Bluetooth Low Energy devices are going to grow significantly around personal tracking.

Market leader Tile already has shipped more than 6 million BLE beacons alone, …

4 comments about "500 Million Beacons Coming; Personal Tracking Use Tops Retail".
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  1. Doc Searls from Customer Commons, August 23, 2016 at 10:42 a.m.

    Do any customers want to be tracked by anything without their permission?

    Never mind how much this is already happening. For much of history slavery was also happening and that was no excuse for it.

    Following people without their express and voluntary permission is not okay.

  2. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin replied, August 23, 2016 at 10:46 a.m.

    In all of these cases, Doc, the consumer would have to have opted in. Obvious problem is that some opt-ins are moving to earlier in the process, as in when a beacon-enabled app is downloaded.

  3. Patrick Stroh from Brunner / data science, analytics, August 24, 2016 at 2:48 p.m.

    Opt in, no doubt, will be buried in the T&Cs just like a lot of web site and ecommerce "permission" marketing.  The big sign (with small print) at the retailer location will also pop up.  Then the barrage will begin ... then the opt-outs/app deletions, etc.  It will be a circus soon.

  4. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin replied, August 24, 2016 at 2:57 p.m.

    Some of that opt-in already is happening, Patrick. On the positive side, from a consumer's standpoint, that first message can provide an option to stop all such future messages.

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