For me the FUD is more on the "Ermagherd! iBeacons can track you!" or "iBeacons will send you adverts!" level - most of it is down to bad journalism spreading f

For me the FUD is more on the "Ermagherd! iBeacons can track you!" or "iBeacons will send you adverts!" level - most of it is down to bad journalism spreading fundamentally faulty information about how iBeacons actually work and what data is involved. It would be much more powerful if tech journalists could actually convey in a "man on the street" friendly way what beacons actually do (i.e. basically sit there in a corner repeating their name over and over again) versus what apps could do and what kinds of data could be stealthily gathered as a result of beacon proximity (or lack thereof). Also, I don't disagree that creating an infrastructure for the potential to gather data via a suitable app down the line without any real oversight is a bad thing.