It turned out that a large amount of Bluetooth beacons were able to record who was when and where on public telephone in the city

ByDavid Minder

Digital advertising companyTitan 360However, to pay phones in New York "GimbalBeacon "that was installed in a large number of short distance wireless communication devices.

Exclusive: Hundreds Of Devices Hidden Inside New York City Phone Booths
http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/exclusive-hundreds-of-devices-hidden-inside-new-york-city-ph


New York City orders Bluetooth beacons in pay phones to come down | Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/new-york-city-orders-bluetooth-beacons-in-pay-phones-to-come-down/


"Gimbal" is a short-distance communication service available from Android and iOS terminals. When using Gimbal, it is necessary to arrange a dedicated short-range wireless device "Gimbal beacon", and if a smartphone with a dedicated application passes near where this beacon is placed, the terminal's date, time, and time via Bluetooth You can record location information and send information from the beacon side to the smartphone. By using these functions, it becomes possible for the owner of the mobile phone to track "when and where they were" in detail, and furthermore it is effective like "to deliver McDonald's advertisement to the user who dropped in near McDonald's" You can also make ad delivery method.

You can see what kind of things you can do with Gimbal by seeing the movie below.

Gimbal Context Aware Platform - YouTube


This Gimbal is a rival service of "iBeacon" that can be used from iOS 7, and its usage is almost the same.

What is "iBeacon", short-range wireless communication that becomes hidden killer content of iOS 7? - GIGAZINE


Advertising company Titan 360 had been placing such a Gimbal beacon on public phones in New York. Titan 360 deals with more than 5000 advertising spaces on the side of public phones and has set up a beacon in about 500 public phones managed by the company in New York.

The advertisement space on the side of the public phone looks like this.

ByC-Monster

Phil Walzak, a New York City spokesman, said, "Beacons that Titan installed on a public phone for testing can not receive or collect information from individual mobile phones, I have already asked you, "commented Ars Technica. In addition, Dave Etherington, Chief Strategy Officer of Titan 360, said, "Beacons installed on public phones do not collect user's personal information, sending some kind of content to users, I have not done anything like tracking, "he denies having used the beacon to collect data on citizens near public phones.

In addition, Titan 360 does not say anything about what purpose the beacon was installed.