Does Reality Mining Concern You?

The topic of reality mining stood out to me as an interesting phenomenon coming out of social networking research.  It is essentially a way of using a variety of location aware devices to monitor peoples movement.  Scientists believe this can help them better understand human behavior and how we interact.  A particular study of reference was performed by MIT with a partnership with Nokia.

The implications for this type of research extend to many areas ranging from homeland security, traffic management, and targeted marketing.  However, a concern I personally have, and one that has cited in a number of articles discussion reality mining, is what is the trade-off with gathering all this information?

The most prominent point is the privacy implications.  There are some studies performed with opt-in participants, but with the advancements in technology the same type of studies can be performed on involuntary subjects.  What protections are in place to notify and protect the average person from abuse of the information?  I tend to be a little cautious (some would say paranoid), so I am curious to have some other opinions on the subject.  Does the rise of reality mining concern you?  If so, what specific concerns do you have?

For more information visit the, There's Gold in 'Reality Mining' article over at Businessweek.com