Phone or Tracking Device?

Red Wolf writes "The first major commercial service that traces people's locations using their mobile phones -- mapAmobile -- is designed more to ease the minds of worried parents and suspicious bosses than to enable unauthorised spying."

Comments

In the name of security

[mao che minh]

"The provider said safeguards were in place to protect civil liberties."

That's how it always starts. As more and more companies use it, and when corporations finally control it, those safeguards will slowly be peeled away in the name of security and efficiency - by then it will be so common that most of us probably won't even notice the loss of privacy at all, and others will even encourage it in order to help catch criminals.

FP

Options...

[bobthemuse]

How long will it take before there's a option on the mobile device to disable this? Even if they don't offer it, I'm sure it'll be hacked pretty quick.

Or a novel idea, turn the phone off!.

And this is new?

[Bagheera]

Cell phones are RF devices. They broadcast. They say "I am here!" and the nearest cell tower says "Cool. I'll patch you in here until you reach the next cell." The phone company could track you to within the radius of a given cell since day one. As the technology has matured they've been able to better locate individual phones. It's a side effect of providing better coverage and more efficient service.

If you're worried about people tracking you by your cell phone, turn it off - and be aware that as soon as you come on the air to make a call, "they" will have a good idea where you are.

All this new service does is make that knowledge accessible to someone who's not monitoring cell sites inside the system. The addition of GPS in the phones makes it dramatically more accurate, but it's not really a new capability.

If you're worried about the Law tracking you down by your phone, then you should probably ditch the cell and go back to pay phones. Ditch the calling card too.

As for parents, if I give my kid a phone, and I care enough about her to wonder where she is, then tracking her with the cell (especially one I'm paying for) is my parental right. Parents are responsible for their kids. Part of that responsibility is having an idea whether they're out raising hell or really are over at their friend's studying like they said they were.

Bosses? Different matter and entirely situational. Company phone, company car, company time, the boss has the right to know whether or not I'm abusing my privilege. My phone? My time? Hell no.

Sure, they can track us with our phones. Big fat hairy deal. You don't want them to track you? Then don't carry a -transmitting- radio in your pocket!

Re:no thanks...

[Planesdragon]

How about I leave the house and drive down the road at 91mph because I feel like it and the police track me going 91, wait for me ahead, and pull me over?

That's what I am worried about.

God, I'm not worried about that. You might as well bitch about radar detectors. (Speed Limits, while a tad bit low, are a good idea. You going at 91 anywhere but a nearly-empty highway is reckless endangerment--and in NYS, it'll [rightly] get you tossed in jail.)

Anyway...

If you're going to worry about tracking, worry about inaccuracy and corruption. Worry about psychotic ex-boyfriends hacking the system and coming after you. Worry about being politically opporessed. And after you worry, figure out an effective check on the darn thing. (A local log of who pings for your location would solve the first; standard checks against corruption would help against the second.)

Re:Worse than Orwellian!!

[dtolton]

" It's not orwellian, it's not even close.

You've never read the mans work, obviously."

I suspect that you are just trolling, but I'll bite.

I find it odd that you would make this claim. One of the major themes in 1984 was that the government knew your location at all times, clearly there were others (i.e. continual propaganda, one minute of hate, perpetual war, thought control, revisionist history, and prohibition against individual expression) however Orwell was vigorously against the idea that the government would know where you were at all times and what you were doing. To say that creating and proliferating a technology that will allow continual and near instantaneous tracking of people isn't Orwellian is to show a deeply misguided understanding of Orwell's work. He clearly expresses this thought when Winston finds the bedroom over the shop in the Prole quarters. He goes on at great length about the freedom that Winston feels being away from the search eyes of the government.

It isn't so much that I'm against the natural advance in technology or even against the government using that technology to catch criminals. Rather I think that each technological advance gives the government greater and greater control and power in our lives. As their power expands, the transparency of the process to ordinary citizens must increase (which it is not), otherwise I believe we will ultimately end up enslaved.

Thomas Jefferson once said something to the effect that "Government is like fire, a great servant, but a fearful master." Words to ponder if you care at all about your freedom.