Decoding Beacon Technology: Who’s Doing the Tracking?

Privacy concerns are becoming more prevalent in today’s digital era. As smartphones continue to play a crucial role in our lives, many people wonder about who is tracking their movements. Bluetooth beacons have been under scrutiny with regard to tracking. Are these small devices keeping tabs on your every move? The answer to this question might be surprising.

Understanding Bluetooth Beacons

Before discussing whether beacons track you or not, it is vital to understand what Bluetooth beacons are and how they operate. Bluetooth beacons are small, low-power devices that use Bluetooth technology to transmit signals. These signals are detected by smartphones and other devices that are in close proximity. Beacons are commonly found in physical locations such as stores, museums, airports, or office spaces. They emit unique codes or identifiers that are recognized by compatible mobile apps on your smartphone.

How Your Phone Interacts with Beacons

Now, let’s explore how your phone interacts with Bluetooth beacons and whether they are, in fact, tracking your movements.

1. It’s important to know that your phone’s interaction with Bluetooth beacons is entirely based on permission. This means that apps on your phone can only access Bluetooth and location data if you explicitly grant them permission to do so. This ensures that your device won’t interact with beacons unless you allow it, which provides an additional layer of security and privacy.
2. For apps like Bookify that use Bluetooth beacons to function properly, your phone’s Bluetooth and location services must be enabled. On iOS devices, Apple’s location services must be used, while Android apps generally use Google’s. These services use various signals, such as GPS, nearby cell towers, and Wi-Fi networks’ MAC addresses to estimate your location. This information can be precise within 10-12 feet.
3. When you enable Bluetooth on your smartphone and give permission to an app to access Bluetooth and location services, it can detect nearby beacons. If the app has a pre-existing relationship with the beacon provider, it can accurately determine your location. This can be used for displaying information about museum exhibits or sending targeted offers when you’re near a specific location, such as a store.
4. You have full control over which apps can use specific functions on your phone. You can deny apps the ability to contact you via notifications or use location services. Furthermore, apps are required to ask for permission to use Bluetooth and location services, and you can choose to allow or deny this access. This way, you can ensure that your phone is only sharing information with the apps you trust.

Beacons Don’t Collect Data

There is a common misunderstanding that Bluetooth beacons gather personal data from your phone. However, that’s not true. In reality, they only transmit signals that your phone and authorised apps can use to identify your location. Unlike some other location-based technologies, Bluetooth beacons don’t collect MAC addresses or send marketing messages to your phone.

Privacy Concerns

It’s important to note that beacons themselves are not used for tracking your phone. However, the way apps utilize your location data should be a concern for privacy. When using location services, apps must clearly state why they need your location information and what they collect. Additionally, they require your permission. It’s essential to understand that apps that use Bluetooth beacons usually ask for “always” permission to access your location.

If you grant “always” permission, you’ll receive reminders from the operating system from iOS 8 onwards. These reminders give you the option to turn off location access or continue to allow the app to collect your location data. Moreover, apps should have policies in place to delete your location history to ensure that location services are used responsibly.

How does Bookify use Bluetooth beacons?

Bookify uses your location in the background to provide a seamless check-in and check-out experience when you come in close proximity to a beacon signal, this allows us to offer the following benefits:

• Effortless check-ins – Automatically check in when you arrive at our locations, making your experience faster and more convenient.
• Accurate check-out – Automatically check out when you leave; you never need to worry about signing out of the office.
• Door access – When approaching a door access system, Bookify automatically knows who you are and will give you a quick and convenient way to log in without using key cards or pin codes.
• Meeting Room – Automatically check in to meeting room bookings or automatically cancel bookings if you do not show up, also, if you leave a meeting room booking early, we can auto-cancel the room so other users can access it.

In Conclusion

To sum it up, Bluetooth beacons don’t track you. Instead, your phone interacts with them based on the permissions you grant. The responsibility for ensuring your privacy while using these technologies primarily falls on app such as Bookify. As users, it’s crucial to stay informed about how your data is used and to manage your app permissions wisely. With the right precautions, you can benefit from beacon technology without compromising your privacy.