Just How Much Privacy Do We Have?

stuffman64 writes: "Popular Science is running an excellent article on just how private our daily lives are. The article chronicles a typical day of a make-believe Graphics Designer from Chicago. Throughout his day, he unwittingly supplies companies with information that can potentially be used against him. And with GPS-enabled cell phones just starting to hit the market, our privacy can only continue to deteriorate from here. A must read."

Comments

No need for GPS

[tjcoyle]

Who needs to worry about GPS enabled phones?

A cell phone's signal is received by multiple antennas at distinct locations simultaneously, therefore, it's only a matter of using triangulation to determine a phone's location based upon signal strength.

Here's a sample of its applications, and if you do a quick search, you'll surely find more:

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/3223847.h tm

Re:No need for GPS

[briancnorton]

Sprint and Cingular are actually putting GPS recievers IN the phones, while verizon and others are doing the triangulation thing. The triangulation is really only useful in remote areas. Multipath and timing errors severly limit its usefulness. GPS on the other hand only works outside.

Re:GPS Phone Question

[frovingslosh]

Is there any reason that a phone could not simply fire up the GPS unit when 911 were called?

The GPS will have to be already running, it takes time to lock on the satellites and get enough data to compute a fix; once it has that info it can track very accurately. The real question is will the sending of that data be limited to just 911 calls. Every indication is that it will not. While it would be very handy to be able to send the data when you want to and let another party receive it (perhaps a person you are trying to meet with or a website you want location specific information from), it seems more likely that the phone company will capture this data against your will and sell it, it would be valuable to a lot of people. It's even been suggest you might start getting targeted instant messaging advertisements when you get close to a store targeting you.

From a Cingular engineer:

[Anonymous Coward]

A phone's location can be determined to within 10 yards in an average metropolitan area, and that's without any real triangulation effort.

Re:GPS Phone Question

[baka_boy]

Your pocket actually isn't much of a problem, unless you're wearing pants made out of metal or concrete...it's the heavy (microwave-blocking) building materials in the city that really cause problems, along with (to a lesser extent) the water in your body.

RTFA

[unformed]

One thing it went over was that people did not like the idea of GPS being always enabled on their phones, so what's happening is that phones will only enable GPS when 911 is dialed or the user hits a "I AM HERE" button, or the phone will have an option to disable GPS altogether.

RTFA.

Medical Data

[TastySiliconWafers]

"No federal laws protect the privacy of medical records."

This part is just plain wrong. There is indeed a federal law to protect the privacy of medical records, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It's not in effect yet because there are provisions in the law that give health providers a specific amount of time to bring their organizations into compliance after the publication of the rules. The rules have been published. The clock is ticking and health care providers are spending big $$$ right now to implement their plans for compliance by the deadline. The law implements real fundamental changes in the way personal health information is handled (including required logging of every access to medical records and serious penalties for misappropriation of patient data).

Re:Printer friendly version

[Anonymous Coward]

Blast. Have to do it for each page. Well,...

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Posted anonymously so as not to be a karma whore. Please mod this up, (If it works that is. It may timeout eventually.)

Re:GPS enabling, is, at the moment, a non-issue

[Technician]

The black helicoptors can use it to pinpoint you from above, but on the ground it ain't going to help you get from A to B any better than the sun.
Um, have you tried one of the map units? Are you thinking of the antiques that only gave a latatude and longitude? Check out the useful features they now have! Ever got lost in a suburban developement? A map unit will mark the maze with a "you are here going this direction" indication. It's a simple matter to locate a route to an exit to a main street.
I'm no longer afraid to jump off a plugged street and cut through a housing developement to the next unclogged street. It's saved me many hours sitting stuck in traffic. It's much easer (and safer) to navagate with a GPS map unit than try to read a street sign and find your location on a paper map while driving. Not all streets have the luxury of a place to pull off out of traffic to read a map. Preplaned routes in the GPS let you know your next turn is a quarter mile away, instead of trying to keep track of street signs and house numbers. Hmm, a quarter mile away, that is probably the second light ahead... It's that simple. They could take down all residentual street signs and take off all the house numbers, and I could still pull up in front of the right house on a service call. I pre-load my destination and route before leaving home.
I no longer have that "Dude, I got lost in Rhode Island yesterday" feeling.