Tracking The deployment of the Links and the method, process, eventual selection, and ownership of entities involved in the project has come under scrutiny by privacy advocates, who express concerns about the terms of service, the financial model, and the collection of
end users' data. These concerns are aggravated by the involvement of Sidewalk Labs, which belongs to Google's holding company, Alphabet Inc. and LinkNYC could be used to track people's movements. a step that NYCLU commended. In an unrelated incident, Titan, one of the members of CityBridge, was accused of embedding
Bluetooth radio transmitters in their phones, which could be used to track phone users' movements without their consent. These beacons were later found to have been permitted by the DOITT, but "without any public notice, consultation, or approval", so they were removed in October 2014. In 2018, a
New York City College of Technology undergraduate student, Charles Myers, found that LinkNYC had published folders on
GitHub titled "LinkNYC Mobile Observation" and "RxLocation". He shared these with
The Intercept website, which wrote that the folders indicated that identifiable user data was being collected, including information on the user's
coordinates,
web browser,
operating system, and device details, among other things. However, LinkNYC disputed these claims and filed a
Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim to force GitHub to remove files containing code that Meyer had copied from LinkNYC's GitHub account.
Other privacy issues According to LinkNYC, it does not monitor its kiosks' Wi-Fi, nor does it give information to third parties. Non-personally identifiable information can be shared with service providers and advertisers. This was described as a problem especially among the homeless, and at least one video showed a homeless man watching pornography on a LinkNYC tablet. Other challenges included the fact that "stimulating"
user-generated content can be found on popular, relatively interactive websites like
Tumblr and
YouTube; it is hard to block NSFW content on these sites, because that would entail blocking the entire website when only a small portion hosts NSFW content. In addition, it was hard, if not impossible, for LinkNYC to block new websites with NSFW content, as such websites are constantly being created. The disabling of the LinkNYC tablets' browsers had stoked fears about further restrictions on the Links.
The Independent, a British newspaper, surveyed some homeless New Yorkers and found that while most of these homeless citizens used the kiosks for legitimate reasons (usually not to browse NSFW content), many of the interviewees were scared that LinkNYC may eventually charge money to use the internet via the Links, or that the kiosks may be demolished altogether.
The Guardian, another British newspaper, came to a similar conclusion; one of the LinkNYC users they interviewed said that the Links are "very helpful, but of course bad people messed it up for everyone". In a press release, LinkNYC refuted fears that service would be
paywalled or eliminated, though it did state that several improvements, including dimming the kiosks and lowering maximum volumes, were being implemented to reduce the kiosks' effect on the surrounding communities. Immediately after the disabling of the tablets' browsing capabilities, reports of loitering near kiosks decreased by more than 80 percent. The tablets' use, as a whole, has increased 12 percent, with more unique users accessing maps, phone calls, and 3-1-1.
Nuisance complaints There have been scattered complaints in some communities that the LinkNYC towers themselves are a nuisance. These complaints mainly have to do with loitering, browser access, and kiosk volume, the latter two of which the city has resolved. Barbara A. Blair, president of the
Garment District Alliance, stated that "people are congregating around these Links to the point where they're bringing furniture and building little encampments clustered around them. It's created this really unfortunate and actually deplorable condition." As a result, LinkNYC staff were working on a way to help ensure that Links would not be monopolized by one or two people. Some people stated that the Links could also be used for loitering and illicit phone calls. One
Hell's Kitchen bar owner cited concerns about the users of a Link located right outside his bar, including a homeless man who a patron complained was a "creeper" watching animal pornography, as well as several people who made drug deals using the Link's phone capabilities while families were nearby. In
Greenpoint, locals alleged that after Links were activated in their neighborhood in July 2017, these particular kiosks became locations for drug deals; however, that particular Link was installed near a known
drug den. == Wider deployment ==