Wozniak Unveils WozNet

dki writes "Steve Wozniak's WozNet is covered in an article at the New York Times today. His company Wheels of Zeus, mentioned previously on Slashdot last year, plans to create wireless networks that use GPS to track clusters of electronic tags within a 1- or 2-mile radius of a base station. The tags "will be able to generate alerts, notifying the owner by phone or e-mail message when a child arrives at school, a dog leaves the yard or a car leaves the parking lot.""

Comments

Double standard

[Anonymous Coward]

So let me get this straight. Walmart wants to implement a system for indexing store goods(RFID tags) which is good only up to a foot or so, and suddenly it is the end of civilization as we know it. But Mr. Wozniak wants to implement a system where you can track someone's every movement, and it's a Good Thing(tm)?

Did I miss something here, or is this another Slashdot Geek double standard?

Meh?

[Esion Modnar]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, what great value is there in knowing that somebody is within a 1 to 2 mile radius of a base station? If the base station is at the school, say, then the kid could be at school, at a nearby park, at the pool hall around the corner, etc.

Of course, if they're not within that radius, they better be abducted by aliens from the Planet Zog, or they are so grounded!

Re:tracking everything

[mickwd]

Consider this: What if a paedophile managed to hack into the system, and then had instant access to the exact locations of thousands of children ? Maybe he can find one on their own, somewhere quiet.

Given the level of fear over people using their credit card numbers on computers connected to the internet, I can't see people being happy with a device that broadcasts their child's exact location on any sort of public network, "encrypted" or otherwise.

If I had children, I certainly wouldn't. And I would also want my children to have some sort of life, and the chance to enjoy the freedoms I did as a child.