The Yin and Yang of smartphone intelligence

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Riddle me this: What do the just-expired Patriot Act and Android's app permissions system have in common? These three things, for starters:

-- Both have given others justification for collecting our personal smartphone data without our knowledge,

-- Both have angered Americans over the past couple of years as they learned what personal information others collected from our smartphones as a result, and

-- Both arrangements came to an end over the past week.

This week, the federal government effectively scrapped the National Security Agency's indiscriminate call-data collection by replacing the Patriot Act with the Freedom Act, which outlaws the practice.

And on the West Coast last week, Google announced at its annual developer gathering it was ditching the permission-granting scheme that gave apps wide-sweeping permission to collect information from our smartphones.

The developments this week and last week serve as the perfect backdrop for those attending an industry event next week. The gathering, Sensors Expo in Long Beach, Calif., will showcase the latest hardware and software technology to help smartphones, wearables and other connected devices understand more about us and the way we live.

During the event's conference portion, which is hosted by the MEMS Industry Group, a sensor trade association, I'll be moderating a panel of executives who are all at the forefront of what's now possible with sensor data. Each of the panelists is trying to do things with the data to make our lives better. For example, they have technology that can:

-- Detect when a nursing-home patient has fallen and can't get up.

-- Predict when a driver is starting to get drowsy.

-- Anticipate which lights a homeowner wants turned on.

-- Lock the front door when the homeowner has fallen asleep.

For many Americans, smartphones that know so much about us is both fascinating and frightening. The new-found insight will enable the devices to help make us healthier, safer, more efficient and possibly even happier. Enticing, yes. But few of us want any part of it unless we can be assured our phones won't share the information without our consent.

Or more precisely – and with apologies to Major League Baseball – without our "express written consent." The NSA believed it had legal cover for its call-data collection from a section of the Patriot Act that allowed for agents to collect "tangible things" that might help fight terrorism. But we never suspected the NSA had been operating this way. And the agency never told us. We found out in 2013 courtesy Edward Snowden.

And in the Android world, the outgoing permissions scheme held apps hostage, forcing us to agree to a laundry list of requests for smartphone control before the operating system would allow us to use them. But even though we granted access, we never expected that apps would tap into anything they didn't need. So it offends our sensibilities when we learn about flashlight apps that track our whereabouts, for example.

That's why "express written consent" is such a critical distinction. We have standards for privacy, and we expect that anyone with access to our personal data will respect those standards. So we don't let smartphone apps or government agencies off the hook just because they can demonstrate legal authorization.

Loyalty cards are a great example for how to do things right. More than three-fourths of American shoppers are enrolled in grocery-store loyalty programs. And pharmacy chains, relative latecomers to the concept, are finding similar success. In general, they're successful because program developers understand that we'll grant access to our personal information if they spell out:

-- What information they want to access.

·-- What they intend to do with the information.

-- What's in it for us.

The execs on my panel all have grand ideas for better living through sensors. And each of them understands that they'll need to have more than just our permission to reach their goals. They'll need to treat our personal data as a valuable commodity, and make us an offer for access that we can't refuse.

Because access without our express written consent, as they say during ballgames, is strictly prohibited.

Mike Feibus is principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, a Scottsdale, Ariz., market strategy and analysis firm focusing on mobile ecosystems and client technologies. You can reach him at mikef@feibustech.com