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Council approves one-year foot‑traffic data contract after extended privacy debate
Summary
Olney City Council approved a 12-month contract with a foot‑traffic/data vendor to provide heat maps and 'leakage' reports to aid economic development, despite council members raising privacy and cost concerns; the council agreed to review the service after one year.
Olney City Council voted to approve a one‑year contract for a foot‑traffic and retail data service following more than an hour of debate about privacy, cost and practical benefit to local businesses. Mayor Lambert, who supported the purchase as a tool for economic development, said the data would help the city "find these numbers" and identify where to focus advertising to draw visitors.
Council members raised repeated privacy concerns about the product's underlying cell‑phone tracking. One council member said, "I think it's a slippery slope, Mayor," warning that stripped identifiers could be re‑identified and tied back to home locations. Opponents questioned whether the service would yield actionable benefits for small local businesses that already track sales and receipts. Supporters countered that the vendor provides "leakage" reports and heat maps—data the city previously used from other sources to understand visitor patterns—and that a 12‑month pilot would show whether the service delivers value.
Miss Quinn told the council the contract is for a 12‑month term, fees are nonrefundable and that the city would pay for only one year before deciding whether to renew. The vendor's materials and prior user references were cited by council supporters as evidence of utility for downtown revitalization and retail recruitment. After discussion, a motion to approve the contract carried; council members said they would evaluate the service's effectiveness at the end of the year.
