GPS Surveillance Creeps into Daily Life

[Omaha Steve]

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3886


GPS Surveillance Creeps into Daily Life
by Catherine Komp
Public-interest advocates say cell phone surveillance is becoming cheaper and more pervasive, but companies and governments are lagging behind in establishing policies to protect the right to privacy.

Nov. 14 – For $5.99 per month, you can turn a cell phone into a surveillance device and track when your target leaves home, where he or she travels and at what speed. You can even detect how much battery power is left on the phone. Marketed as "virtual eyes" on your kids or employees, the service also allows you to construct a virtual "fence" so that you can receive electronic alerts if the phone’s carrier crosses into forbidden areas.

Provided by the company AccuTracking, this service is just one of dozens integrating the Global Positioning System (GPS) into everyday life. The system uses satellites to determine the locations of GPS-enabled devices.

From brightly colored cell phones and watches designed to help parents shadow the movements of children, to enhanced mapping websites allowing managers to monitor traveling employees through mobile devices, corporations are cashing in on GPS surveillance technology.

But as these increasingly inexpensive products rush onto the market, public-interest groups are raising privacy concerns. Youth-rights’ activists, workers’ advocates and domestic-violence experts say public dialogue is needed to illuminate the consequences of this $20 billion-per-year industry.

FULL story at link.

[sarcasmo]

1. Kick and Nom as Orwell rolls in his grave.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. the eye in the sky . . .

:kick:

[EVDebs]

3. Being used now by parents to track autos driven by teenagers....nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Yeah, but if you lose your cell phone, will they use this GPS to help

find it? Not a fat chance because it's worth more than one hundred dollars to them in sales for you to get another if you haven't paid for insurance.

[IndyOp]

5. Is there a way to find out if your cell is being tracked?

I don't have a cell. Just curious...

[Omaha Steve]

10. I was hoping somebody would answer this

I wish I knew.

[Mr Rabble]

12. It depends on the phone and carrier.

Most phone produced within the last 2-3 years are totally exposed to GPS tracking even when turned off. To disable the tracking function you would need to remove the battery altogether.

Just going from memory here:

As psrt of the transition from analog to digital networks, mobile carriers were required to incorporate a "911 anywhere" feature into every digital phone. This was clearly a slippery slope as all new phones produced are track able, by design, everywhere- always- all the time.

While I have not read through Patriot Act 2, I assume that there were specifications "provided" to "make things easier" for designers.

[Silent3]

17. You would have to remove the battery???

If you know something I don't know about some super-special ultra low-power tracking mode, then maybe, just maybe, this could be true. Otherwise, this sounds a bit tinfoil hattish to me.

For your cell phone to be tracked, power has to be supplied to both the RF receive and RF transmit circuitry, just like when your phone is in standby mode. Your battery would be drained just as fast as if you'd left your phone in standby mode, so turning your phone off would do nothing to preserve its battery life. I think a lot of people would have noticed such a problem and complained loudly. (Yes, even if you're the kind of person who lives as if your cell phone has been surgically attached to your body, believe it or not, some people like to turn the damned things off until they're ready to make an outgoing call -- the batteries last a long time that way.)

The only way a turned-off cell phone could be tracked is if, despite being turned off, the phone were to periodically power up its RF circuitry even when supposedly powered down, frequently enough for tracking purposes, but infrequently enough to avoid noticeable battery drainage. This seems unlikely to me.

Further, if cell phones are always powering themselves up like this for tracking until you physically remove the battery, why don't airlines make you remove your cell phone battery when you fly? Turning your phone off wouldn't be enough to stop cell phone interference problems if this were true. (The biggest reason to turn your phone off in an airplane is not because cell phone transmissions are such a big hazard to airplane electronics, but because fast-moving, high altitude cell phones can cause grief for ground-based cell towers which are only designed to track slower-moving ground-level devices.)

[Infinite Hope]

6. Another substitute for parenting. n/t

[LanternWaste]

11. Or an additional for parenting... n/t/

Or simply an additional for parenting...

[Imagevision]

7. I guess you could just add a phone to someone's car and you could... track-em?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. I just wouldn't bring my cell with me

When going somewhere forbidden. Gads, don't they realize kids will figure that one out? Guess they'll be implanting the tracking devices in them like I had done on my dogs.

[Imagevision]

9. And if mom or dad merely tosses their cell in your car?? then what?

[savemefromdumbya]

14. yes

[The2ndWheel]

13. We'll all be tracked for perfectly logical reasons

That's why you have to worry about it.

[dogman]

15. Unions are also lagging on policy.

There should be a requirement that a business notify its employees if they are subject to this surveillance. The City of Chicago uses this to verify inspections. The inspectors are aware of the monitoring and are not monitored through lunch or outside of work hours. If the employer provides you with a cell phone or walkie-talkie, they alone control the GPS information. If you shield the GPS chip, they still are able to triangulate your position with ground based towers.

[zreosumgame]

16. huh, if I found this happening

why somehow my phone would find it's way under the cushion of an airplane. After it's not as if they clean the cabins anymore so it would stay there for years LOL! Let the boss track it then :evilgrin: