Titan Removes Beacons At New York Mayor’s Request
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
“It was a crazy day here yesterday,” says Dave Etherington, executive vice-president, chief strategy officer at Titan, New York.
Background: Several stories had broken in local media that the company had been ordered by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, to remove beacons from several hundred phone booths that had been placed there ‘without consultation with citizens’. This was despite the fact that the beacons were placed there by Titan for operational testing under approval by the city’s own agency, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there about beacons,” says Etherington. “This was a debate that needed to happen. It’s similar to all the fuss when GPS was first introduced. Now everybody wants to use GPS.
“We are still absolute advocates of beacons. Titan was the first company in the world to do mobile geo-fencing with Out-of-Home. We did that in the US. And we were the first company in the US – with the Peapod campaign that we created – to create a virtual shopping experience directly from OOH. We like to be the first to offer new technology to benefit people.
“We believe that beacons are certainly something that people will want. They have so many uses, for example, for emergency messages. And in terms of advertising, there has to be an opt-in by users with specific apps for, e.g., individual retail stores.
“In this case, they were being used for testing so that, if there was a problem with a panel, it would confirm that we were at the right panel. That alone could save the city a lot of money.”
A statement from the Mayor’s office said, in part: “Titan has been an important City partner in helping expand communications options for New Yorkers, from piloting free public WiFi to providing free calling on all its pay phones across the five boroughs for three weeks after Hurricane Sandy. While the beacons Titan installed in some of its phone[s] for testing purposes are incapable of receiving or collecting any personally identifiable information, we have asked Titan to remove them from their phones.”
And Titan had officially delivered the following: “Titan has tested proximity beacon technology in some of its New York out-of-home assets in order to understand how, and if, this technology works in dense urban areas. There are many potential beneficial safety, communication and way-finding use cases for municipalities using beacons, as well as some potential commercial use cases.
Gimbal proximity beacons do not collect user data/information, they do not send or push content, nor do they track people. Beacons can only be utilized through users’ smartphones if, and only if, the user has downloaded a specific app with the technology imbedded and the user has specifically opted in. Titan is committed to testing new technologies which may have future benefits to its municipality partners and their constituents. At NYC’s request Titan is in the process of removing the beacons from all NYC locations and ending the test.”
However, says Etherington says, there is so much misinformation on how beacons can be used.
They were used for the Tribeca Film Festival by people who opted in to get information on the next movie and other information. And Gimbal beacons (not those in use by Titan) are used in several arenas and by Major League Baseball. But they always involve smart phone users to opt-in with use of an app for the specific event or store.
“We actually welcome a debate on their use, so that people can really understand that it does not invade their privacy or involve them at all unless they opt-in,” says Etherington.
Nevertheless, almost all beacons had been removed from the phone booths when we spoke with him Tuesday (Oct.7, 2014) and the rest were due to come down today.
Titan currently handles the advertising contract for about half of the phone booths in New York with Van Wagner handling the other half. The contract is currently up for renewal, beginning in 2015.
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