Slashdot Mirror
Track People Using Their Mobile Phones
Richard W.M. Jones writes "A couple of new services have been rolled out in the UK recently which allow you to track people when they have their mobile phones turned on. Mapminder states 'It's important to know where your loved ones are for your own peace of mind'. 192.com asks 'Do you want to know where your children are?'. Of course the police have been able to do this for a long time, and evidence from mobile phone positions has been used in high-profile court cases in the UK. Silicon.com has an article."
Obviously, this is good if you have a cell phone and are being tried for a crime that you did not commit, it's just a simple matter of proving where you were at XX:XX:XX on XXX the XX of XXXXXXXX. However, if someone steals your phone, then plants it on a perpetrator, then sneakily gives it back, you've got some explaining to do.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
This does not track people.
It tracks their cell phones. Those things are not necessarily in the same place.
A while ago, before 9/11 I was sitting in a bizare meeting with a bunch of wireless execs who were breathlessly telling us how great their new location finder service was going to be. They could send you adverts targetted at people in a particular location.
I was rather unpopular when I asked if the customers would buy a product if the chief benefit was going to be to enable a new kind of spam. "Perhaps they don't get the choice"
I was even more unpopular when I pointed out that the regulators in Europe would blast this type of thing on privacy grounds. "Oh the regulators tend to be more sensible than the general public".
I pointed out that my cousin, one of those regulators has survived two assasination attempts and may have an opinion about a technology that gives away his position. In Europe privacy is not something that you muck arround with.
Today the risk of this type of scheme would be obvious even to a US legislator. Now right to life will be able to stalk doctors who provide abortions by telephone, Saddam loyalists will be able to stalk senior Republicans and Al Qaeda will be able to stalk everyone.
So they are finally working out socially acceptable ways to package up the same technology. Was it really necessary to have the dotCOM bust before some folk got a clue?
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
With a mobile phone, if your government ever suspects that you are a dissident, not only can they pull up a complete travel log for your life since you got the phone, but they can also check who you have been talking to, and the movements of those people too.
We must value our rights, such as privacy, before we accept technology. Electronic voting was the latest disaster. E-books will be the next.
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With the reception that my AT&T mmode phone has, tracking me by that thing is not going to be easy. I know that in DC my phone dies in the lobby of many buildings and is pretty spotty in many areas (subways, basements, parks). And even if the system does manage to get a signal, the accuracy of the system still leaves much to be desired if you are in a dense metropolitan area.
Nuclear war would really set back cable. - Ted Turner
If you're so concerned about saving lives, then why don't you carry a GPS with you and read off the numbers to the 911 operator. There's no reason for them to know where you are unless you want them to.
Life in Orange County
I got rid of it a year ago. I don't need people calling me when I'm not at home. I don't want to call people when I'm not at home and if I do I can use a pay phone.
People got by fine for many years before cell phones became popular, now people treat them like they're vital. I hate that digital leash. Now I just need to work on getting rid of my stupid work pager.
SMS and MMS are old school. We use the new gaydar profile for Bluetooth.
Along the other line of your comment, I don't see gay people putting burdens on child welfare and education systems like the equally-frequent, over-horny straight people. How can conservatives simultaneously whine about gay people being more promiscuous than straights and the prevalence of teenage pregnencies and welfare moms?
Personally, the most promiscuous thing I have is my network card, and my switched network really hurts its options.
then you can "prove" you weren't at the crime scene.
No, you can just "prove" that your phone wasn't at the crime scene.
Which mall? When? Which police department handled the case?
Just curious, because this has the ring of one of the older urban legends, so if you have a hard cite for when and where it happened, I'd be truly grateful (and might be able to win some money placing bets in the office too).
Cthulhu Barata Nikto
I'm tired of theses "this can save lives" arguments. Fascism "can save lives", too, but most people seem to agree that it just isn't worth it. Well, actually, they agree in the abstract, at least, but each individual step towards it gets justified with your kind of argument.
I think being able to track one's own location via GPS or cell phones is really swell. But when the police or employers can do it as a matter of course, then it fundamentally changes the kind of society we have.
Uhm, "gay people" aren't specifically horny, it's men that are, and gay men just don't have the restraint that the female side of the relationship normally provides. Hey, I'm quoting from a gay friend of mine who explained why he had a different partner at least once, and often more than once, every week, for years.
A straight guy would do the same (speaking for myself) if he could convince attractive women to go along for the ride, so to speak.
The Bluetooth thing is cool, but won't help you find company in a strange city, which LBS will do, with the right applications.
Lastly, no-one was whining, you're being over-defensive: only a small minority of conservatives are prejudiced against gays per se, the majority of people are equally prejudiced against all people different from them. Personally I'm only prejudiced against blinkered conservatives. Gay people probably put less burden on welfare systems, but they aren't producing a new generation of tax payers (and believe me, raising children is a burden as well as a pleasure).
Ceci n'est pas une signature
I have also stopped at numerous accidents (I'm a doc) in rural vermont and norther NY on trips, and had no clue where I am, talking to a state trooper who was 100mi away at the time (who also didn't know any of the landmarks I was near) and having the phone Co be able to locate me would have made it much easier...
As for carrying a GPS, why should I spend $100+ to be a good samaritan (I already carry emergency medical supplies that I paid for...).
IMHO as long as the phone co only gives this info to either itself for billing/service or to the 911 folks, except under warrant, then I'm all for it. I worry about the "kid tracking" services, as the security of whatever web technology they use to serve the info to the parents, is undoubtably crackable (everything is eventually), which means that someone else could track my kids... No thanks!
In theory Virgin customers should be able to request the infomation that refers to themselves by making a request under the Data Protection Act.
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
It's important to know where your loved ones are for your own peace of mind
Pity the poor humans who didn't have this technology available. The more I think about it, the more I wonder how we ever survived, not knowing where a "loved one" was at any moment. I'm of the opinion that people who would use such a service are obsessive, and probably need help.
Include the feature, allow it to be disabled... by default.
If you want to be tracked, it's a feature. If you don't, you're not having your privacy violated.
Of course... the main issue is with whether or not you can tell if it's actually disabled. And of course police monitoring warrants apply regardless (same as they do with a home phone wiretap, I would assume?).
Great...now the bugulars who know my cellphone number can check on where I am to make sure it's safe to rob my place. There is such a thing as too connected...and we get closer everyday.
Heck no. In case you haven't been following the going trend for the last fifteen years: This is all about selective enforcement and abuse of power. Authority will be used against you and no, you do not have any rights. :-)
+++ATHZ 99:5:80