Six years ago I went to a css conference/seminar where I learned about using mobile phones and a simple app to track interactions between people using geo location and blue tooth “handshakes.” The researchers used it to predict disease transmission (cold/flu) among students.

About three years ago I met a few times with an entrepreneurial student who was using the signal strengths received from wifi routers on campus to triangulate people’s location in order to monitor space usage on campus.

I’d mention these sorts of things here and there, and it usually creeped people out. “Privacy invasion.” Except, the researchers weren’t actually generating the data, they were just using data that already existed and companies were almost certainly already using ...

... for technical and advertising purposes. I’m surprised that with all the regulation and extra money spent on telecom in Canada over the years, and the market penetration of smartphones, that we can’t get a test and trace program up and running.

Scale is a challenge, but even starting with something basic like: if location == “Trinity Bellwoods” and time == “Saturday,” then “report to [googleMap::nearest carwash]” for “right good scrubbing.”