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Microsoft Tries To Charm EU With Future Visions
RedStar writes "BBC Online has a piece on Microsoft's visions of the future as shown to Euro MPs in a charm operation." From the article: "This is more a new concept than a new technology, and the real version may still be a year or two away. It would track the mobile phone signals of loved ones, then cross-reference which mobile cell they were in with pre-programmed locations, like the home, school, or workplace. Ms Sellen added: 'This is not very specific at all about where people are, and that's deliberate. We don't want to invade people's privacy too much, so we deliberately keep things very coarse grained.'"
with the data retention laws and you have a totalitarian's wet dream.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
It would track the mobile phone signals of loved ones, then cross-reference which mobile cell they were in with pre-programmed locations, like the home, school, or workplace.
We don't want to be Big Brother. We want to make the tools so you can be Big Brother!
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
So we are going to let an untrustworthy company (Microsoft), stalk our family members (hopefully trust worthy)?
I am happy that Microsoft has decided that they "don't want to invade people's privacy too much", just a little bit. Unfortunately, the 100000 people who hack the system the day after it comes out might not be so generous.
Am I the only one who thinks that some pedophile is going to hack into the system and then start snatching kids?
What are you eating? isItVeg?.
"don't want to invade people's privacy TOO MUCH"
Emphasis mine, of course. But that's just so telling, isn't it?
This is not very specific at all about where people are, and that's deliberate.
So everyone will know when you're in the bathroom, but they won't necessarily know if its number one or number two.
I cant wait to stalk my girlfriend with it.
We don't want to invade people's privacy too much
:\
Yes. We want to invade their privacy just the right amount.
But on a more serious note, people here might be surprised that UK people (at least those in London, if I recall correctly), aren't as worried about privacy/spying issues as you might think. London has had hundreds of cameras in its metro area to prevent crime. I think it would be a little worrying if it recorded political protests or other citizen-sensitive events. But overall I imagine there's a reduction in person-to-person crime there.
"This is more a new concept than a new technology, and the real version may still be a year or two away."
Boy those Microsoft Reserchers are really innovative. I don't know how they keep managing to come up with this stuff
Me, I lose the damn thing all the time anyway. "Where's Mama today? Oh look, she's been dropped behind the couch again."
It is a woman's prerogative to change other people's minds.
C'mon, doesn't anyone READ the announcement?
They explicitly said the technology would track your LOVED ONES. If someone WASN'T *your* *loved* *one*, then I think the implication is very clear -- the software simply wouldn't work at all for a person like that! And surely by now they have enough other dirt on you to know if someone is your loved one or not.
A fair go for your loved ones at M$ is all that I'm asking...
Who wants to bet it will register "Mortal Peril" whenever someone sits down in front of a linux terminal?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Sorry Microsoft, but my carrier has already been doing that for a while now: http://www.personfinder.ph/.
Additionally, when I was working as systems development lead for an SMS applications company, I developed a program that uses two cell sites to triangulate a phone's position based on relative signal strength. It was dropped out of development because ANTS beat us to it.
If this is Microsoft's vision of the future, I guess it would be safe to say "The future is NOW!".
So, this is the future, eh? In Finland we already have had this kind of service for several years already. For example, our biggest mobile phone operator TeliaSonera has been offering a service, where you can query a location of your family members for quite a while now. All participants have to sing for the service separately and personally, so it should be relatively safe, but nonetheless it will give a power to stalk you girlfriend/wife/kids. And I have understood that this will give a location quite accurately (street address etc.).
sadly, most parents have already failed. for some parents, the analogy of the police-state is just fine for them in terms of how they run their household. it's easy to say "get involved," but the fact is that getting involved is a damn sight harder than it sounds for a disturbingly large portion of parents.
in the face of an inability to actually communicate, what's left is oversight (which is true regardless of whether we're talking about the relationship of Big Brother to the People or of Mom and Dad to The Kids).
look at some mobile phone ads even now: the 'parental' motive for giving your kid a phone is that it allows you to keep in contact, or keep in touch. using the phone as a tracking device like this is just a logical extension of that impulse, and i can guarantee that there will be a ready and willing market for it.
/. is what happens when geeks talk. get used to it.
How about you don't invade it at all ? I would really like to be able to carry my mobile phone with me without announcing to everyone who cares to ask where I go, especially since our Glorious Leaders made that little data retention law...
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.