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Bell Labs Demos Cell Phone Location Software
mateub writes "AP via Yahoo reports that Bell Labs will soon announce cell phone software to reveal the owner's location to interested parties. To alleviate privacy concerns they say the software will 'let cell users be as picky as they choose about disclosing their whereabouts' but the article goes on to mention 'the ability for restaurants and other businesses to send a solicitation by text message to a cell phone when its owner wanders within range of those merchants.' Oh, wonderful, cellular popups..."
Sounds like a very good reason for me to remain cell-phone-free.
While some adulterous adults may not want to have their whereabouts known, it is important for kids to be tracked.
Child abduction is a major problem that affects thousands of families every year. This kind of cell phone tracking would go far to help find missing kids before they end up dead and in a ditch.
I have been pwned because my
Only in an emergency need you tell the outsiders where you are. You don't even want to always tell trusted people where you are. That's like being lojacked. Given the ability, how can you say to your wife, "Honey, I don't want you to see my location every minute of every day?"
Unless she's a good, understanding privacy advocate.
For an example of a nice location aware app that doesn't have to tell the network where you are, check out this blog entry about The Big Yellow Button
Another thought, what about cell phone companies using the phone location service to send bill collectors?
Fight Spammers!
enabling users to specify what location information is shared, when, with whom, how and under what circumstances
They told us that navigation system is for navigation. And then, its tracking the cars, speeding tickets.
They told us cookies is just to make the stateless HTTP protocol have some states. And then, its Double Click and all the tracking.
They told us at the grocery store that the card will be used to get discounts. And then, you start getting those annoying mail related to products you bought.
Hello marketing fellas out there, PLEASE stop. Consumer is getting upset.
Free XBox, PS2
That's the kind of excuse Bush and Ashcroft want to use to pull the woll over your eyes. You really think this would stop any kidnappers?
Step 1: Kidnap Kid
Step 2: Throw any phone they have in the dumpster
Really, why the hell do you think any kidnappers are going to let a kid keep his PHONE on him? You think they're THAT stupid?
From the article.
"However, given the real-time requirements of transmitting information over a telephone network, it can be difficult to program a wide-range of options for individuals to personalize preferences such as when, where and with whom to share location information. One solution is to hard-code a network database with an "on-off" switch that activates or deactivates a service, for instance, during a window of time with set hours such as peak and off-peak."
So, dial 9-1-1 and your phone should broadcast its location.
Otherwise, just make it an option for the numbers you have stored on your phone and a simple check box for the rest (I want to receive tons of phone spam Y/N).
#1. If I dial 9-1-1, my location is broadcast.
#2. If I turn off the broadcast function, my location is not broadcast (unless #1).
#3. For every phone number I have stored, I have the option to broadcast (or not) my location to that number, provided I have broadcast turned on (#2).
#4. For everyone else, I can choose to receive massive amounts of phone spam (unless #2). Why anyone would choose this option is beyond me.
Any problems with that? It seems simple to me. And it should be easily implemented in software. Of course, it will NOT provide the captive audience for phone spam that seems to be the focus of that article. But so what?
5 years after this comes out, getting a cell phone plan will probably cost half as much as it does now, or even less, AS LONG as you get the ad-supported account. This way, they'll be able to sell the private ad-free one for even more than we pay now!
Many have pointed out how ineffective lojacking kids would be if the kidnappers (who 99% of the time are relatives, the press just makes a big deal when there is a stranger kidnapping) are aware of the technology.
It can be worse, it can be used to mislead. Of course they can just turn the phone off (you going to trigger an alert on every dead battery or out of range cell phone?) but they can also plant it at the home or the home of some red herring.
But here's the real question. Kids have rights. At what age will parents finally let their kids be free of the surveillance anklet we're calling a cell phone?
I can tell you it will be later than it should be for almost all parents, that is their nature, and it's understandable.
But I think if we are going to have readily available child-lojack, there may need to be a law to protect the children from their parents, and forbid doing it after the age of 12. The kids can still have a phone, can still call 911 and transmit their location, but no parent query.
Otherwise we destroy the freedom of all kids to catch one stupid criminal out of 100,000 who doesn't know to turn off the phone. All the other times it will be used to say, "I told you not to associate with that Jimmy kid."
Just as cookies have useful applications, so will location-based messaging. Location-based traffic reports immediately come to mind.
:-)
I'd love to get an SMS when I-684/I-95 are jammed, and I'd love it even more if the service was free, paid for by an ad for the local Dunkin Donuts.
Beware: I believe all are created equal, and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Billboards, flyers, guys dressed in a chicken suit to advertise the opening of a KFC - it's all unwanted and all in your face everyday. I don't see how cell phone ads are any different . . . except for the fact that you pay for the cell phone to work so that the advertisers HAVE a new way to bombard you. The least that could be done is for the carrier to offer phone bill discounts to people who allow themselves to be ad targets (and restaurant coupons too).
Seems the easiest thing to do would be to turn the phone off - which I do anyway. It is an option we don't have with other forms of advertisements.
They will probably remove the off button though.
I hope they plan on giving me a nickel if i walk in and show them the pop-up. I sure as hell don't want to get charged for something like this.
Don't waste time... procrastinate now!
Some ways in which this could be hijacked for malicious purposes:
1) Angry spouse getting back at partner (ie, escaping violent environment holed up at an undisclosed location)
2) Law officers having their cell numbers given out, then called, hang up, when called back, their locations revealed. Endanger their families.
3) Same for judges, crummy construction contractors, bad auto repair shop owners... anybody who might make someone else mad for one reason or another.
Need I go on?
What if one of our national leaders is located (while in an undisclosed location) via his cell phone by an extremist who is bent on revenge? What about his family?
Abortion providers (who I'm not happy about in areas of convenient terminations of pregnancy) could also come under fire.
How about hackers who slip into a phone company's system and finds where someone works/frequents and blackmails others, or even just lets it slide that they frequent X rated establishments?
How long before someone is able to latently track cell phones (via some hack/intrusion) of say... the president of the united states while on a trip? Okay, maybe not the president... how about an aide who's always with him? How often are the updates made? Often enough to track with targeting on a weapon?
Where do we draw the line on capabilities to track people?
How about people found speeding because the distance per time exceeds any possible speed limit between those tested points?
How about going after phone company execs?
Yeah, I thought so... they don't want their phones to broadcast at all.
Is there any hope of an open source hardware board that can be used as a phone with an appropriate ID card/pre-paid card purchased to get on networks without relying on someone else's tracking?
And there are thousands more that go missing for the few stories you posted about. I do think it is great whenever ANY missing person/child is found. I personally do not think it is right to allow this person tracking technology to be allowed. It WILL one day be used against our essential liberties, and then it will be too late. This all sound too Orwellian to me : )
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Here is my take:
I don't have a home phone; I only keep the cell phone. Why? Because I can't see the point of having a land line that is only going to subject me to a constant torrent of tele-marketing. With the cell-phone if someone needs or wants to reach me, they can no matter where I happen to be. My typical response is to not reply, and then later when accused of ignoring whoever it was that was trying to reach me i can blame it on poor cell service. Land lines almost never go down and people will only buy the whole "my machine has been dodgy lately" shtick so many times. So see the Cell phone helps me keep the world at arms length through the illusion of fallibility.
This militant "I don't have a cell phone" thing perplexes me. Banal conversation is the crux of modern civilization! I won't even bother bringing up the irony of complaining about superfluous communication by posting on a message board.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Regular popups wouldn't work either if the advertiser was close enough to visit to "register disapproval".
bits and peace
Nicholas Daley