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Tracking Your Employees, Children

Posted by michael on from the not-much-difference-at-many-companies dept.

Mattygfunk writes "Hong Kong has launched what's believed to be Asia's first location-based service which enables companies to locate their employees via their mobile phones signals." And in a semi-related story, Son-of-a-Geek writes "The BBC is reporting on a new GPS device for kids from Wherify Wireless. With the new device parents can track junior or he can call for help by pushing a panic button. Available only in the US for one penny less than 400 dollars it is a pager as well."

9 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. I get it... by Alpha42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So for just 399.99, I can have a little electro-gizmo that will do the job that I, as a parent, should have been doing all along (Tracking where little Johnny is, and what mischief he's been into)..

    Lovely.

    (Don't get me wrong, I'm all for electro-gizmos, but I also believe that parents should be responsible for just that... parenting.)

    1. Re: I get it... by Ian+Wolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No parent can be there 100% of the time for their child. In the past six months, kids have been taken from their bedrooms, school yards, as well as their front yard.

      It maybe "en vogue" to blast parents for their irresponsibility, but there are some things that all parents are defensless against.

      I have a little girl coming this January, and I'm terrified. We live in a world full of sick and twisted individuals and there are practical limits to what parents can do to protect their children.

      Hell, my parents were the best parents anyone could hope for, but that doesn't mean they were permanently adjoined to my hip 24x7. I was often alone at the bus stop. Sometimes I decided to walk home from school or from a friends house. I would periodically walk to the store less than 1000ft from my house. And sometimes, I would run off somewhere to do something they expressly forbade me to do.

      I think this device, as is, is perfect for its target market, small children. For my teenager, I would prefer a device that they could turn on and off, so that they can control when it should act like a distress beacon. There comes a time, where you have to respect your kids right to be a kid.

      --
      "The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
    2. Re: I get it... by Ian+Wolf · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Just for the record, kids have always been snatched up by sick and twisted individuals. It's just that within the last six months it's suddenly become "en vogue" to broadcast it on the six oclock news once again since there's apparently nothing better going on in the world.

      Whether or not its being reported more or less, doesn't detract from the fact that there is a problem. And many of the cases reported recently were such big stories because of the audacity with which the crimes were staged. Some of the more recent stories, I will readily admit were more hysteria driven, like the shark attack stories last year. In many of those cases, this device would not have been of much help, except maybe the little girl in Philly, who fortunately got away in the end anyways.

      Kids have been kidnapped for decades, and they always will be, sometimes from the most caring and protective of households, I'm not debating that, I'm saying that any device with claims to 'assist' the situation is only going to make it worse, as it takes yet another responsibility off the parental units.

      I'm not saying that this tool is going to eliminate adbuctions. I am not saying that this device should be used as a form of babysitter for bad parents, because the truth is bad parents are going to be bad parents with or without this device. At the risk of sounding like some politician :) , its the children I'm concerned about. If this device can save the lives of a handful of children who would otherwise be dead, then the tool can hardly be making the situation worse.

      Stopping kids from getting hurt is all well and good, having one of these is fine, as long as you don't for a second let yourself be disillisioned into thinking that it's really anything other then a "Toy" that your kid will undoubtly take apart to tinker with, trade to a friend for some baseball cards, or leave at home on the dresser on a regular basis. Not to mention that they'll never carry it anywhere once they get old enough to realize that "Mom and Dad know where I'm at when I've got this thing with me!" I guess I should have explained myself better in my original post... not all parents are bad parents, and not eveyrone who'd buy one of these is going to be an idiot about it.. but I'm just so tired and sick of watching people these days find new ways to pawn their responsibility off onto others and/or gadgest...

      I agree with you completely, but the important thing is this device is no different than a car seat. If Joe Idiot wants to put a rear-facing seat facing forward, or any seat in the front passenger seat, then they have just graduated to the class of BAD parent. But, just because some idiot should have gotten a vasectomy at age 13, doesnt mean we should not bother with them.

      --
      "The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
  2. The device LOCKS onto your wrist. by paladino · · Score: 5, Informative

    If people would read the information provided you would see that the thing LOCKS! onto your wrist and can not be unlocked by the kid. There would be no "leaving it at home" or "putting it were you are suposed to be". It can be unlocked by the parent remotely via the web or with the provided key fob device. Read people Read.

    1. Re:The device LOCKS onto your wrist. by oyenstikker · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, you see, I was watching Johnny's dad fix his car, and he dropped the propane torch, and it went right by my arm. Luckily, the gizmo was there to protect my arm, but it got wrecked. Then, wouldn't you believe it? I tripped over a lug nut, and fell, and the gizmo, being weakened from the heat, got bent. So then we were playing baseball, see, and I got hit by a pitch, which broke it the rest of the way off!

      --
      The masses are the crack whores of religion.
  3. Window of opportunity by theRhinoceros · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The window of usefulness for a device like this, IMO, is bounded by two things:

    -the lower boundary being the age where a child can reliably keep this thing on all day without messing with it, taking it off, or letting somebody "borrow" it

    -the upper boundary being the age where the child is savvy enough to put a bit of distance between him/herself and the device.

    If your child is young and loose enough to warrant a $400 tracking device, perhaps your parenting techniques need to be reconsidered. If your child is older and warrants a tracking device, he/she will soon figure out a way to defeat it, whether by losing it, throwing it away, etc. Older children who do not want to be tracked will find a way not to be tracked. The window of age where this device will be an effective tracking solution is pretty narrow, as I see it.

  4. Not too new in the US, either. by budalite · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is at least one company, SAIC, that has been installing a similar mobile product in American utility trucks for a few years. It tracks the trucks 24/7. Utility Repair/Installation Efficiency has risen dramatically in response. The Union agreed to the idea only, if I remember rightly, after the Utility agreed to include (and require) an emergency call button on a seperate keychain for the Techs.
    (Disclaimer: Used to work for SAIC.)

  5. Two things about "child abductions" by TheConfusedOne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First off, despite the recent spait of publicity about child abductions, well over 90% of them are by family members. So, they either probably have the code to turn this thing off or it isn't on the kid when they're taken.

    Second, GPS signals and wireless signals are quite easy to block. GPS doesn't work indoors and the most common place to lose a child is a large department store or mall. So, it doesn't do you any good there.

    Finally, battery life. How long will this thing run before recharges? If it doesn't last long then you can just wrap some tinfoil around the thing to block the GPS signal and wait for the battery to die.

    Though, you have to admire how quicly companies can market to the latest paranoia.

    --
    --- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
  6. ATT Wireless has this by austad · · Score: 3, Informative

    ATT Wireless has this now with their M-mode service. You give friends permission to locate you, and they can just go to "location services" on the phone, and it tells where you're at. It's accurate to within a block.

    Their "find businesses" thing can use it too, so you can find the closest gas station, restaraunt, or strip club.

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