• by August 23, 2000

By David Cotriss

With the buzz generated by the just-released online privacy study by the Pew Internet and American Life project, one important area the survey overlooked was concern over wireless Internet privacy. Wireless Internet access has skyrocketed overseas in countries such as Japan and Europe, and it is expected to do the same in the U.S. within 18 months. Advertisers are already jumping at the chance to get ads onto people's PDA's and cell phones, which raises new privacy issues that must be dealt with if wireless advertising is to become mainstream.

An interesting finding of the Pew study, which surveyed 2,117 Americans, about half of whom are online, is that while most of them are concerned about their personal information being captured, most don't take simple steps that can help prevent this from happening. This lack of understanding of the technology is all the more reason for advertisers to be respectful of whom they are targeting and ask permission before collecting any personal information. This was an overwhelming finding of the study, showing that 86% of Internet users believe sites should ask permission before collecting personal information.

Since March of this year, when many cell phone Web surfers found their phone numbers being left behind at sites without their knowledge, concerns over wireless privacy have only increased. Yet scrutiny of the issue has been limited, unlike the traditional Internet. Cookies, which track surfers' online habits, are also pervasive on the wireless Web, and little has been done to curb this issue. The newness of the technology is largely to blame for this. It will no doubt take some more time before standards are finalized that address wireless privacy and ad serving.

"We need to be sure we can hold wireless advertising to the same privacy standards as regular (wired) online advertising," says Eliot Kent-uritam, media planner for MediaSmith, a San Francisco, CA-based media buying and planning firm that is heavily investigating wireless advertising. "We don't want to just buy wireless media without knowing the usage or taking into account privacy matters."

Indeed, the thought of companies being able to send ads to people on their cell phones based on location is scary to some, yet the next generation of cell phones will have global positioning built in, making this a widespread practice. For example, when someone passes by a certain store, they may see an ad pop up for a discount on a certain product. While this may be a dream come true for advertisers, this level of invasion into one's personal space concerns many, and providing an opt-in option is critical.

"The great thing about wireless is geographic targeting, but it will scare people if it's not opt-in. And there's not much room for ads, except maybe on the Pocket PC, and you don't want to turn off this new audience," Kent-uritam explains.

Advertisers are running to be the first to appear on wireless devices,