GPS Tracking and Your Privacy — There’s More Than GPS Involved
…. Three basic techniques can be used to determine the location of a wireless phone or Wi-Fi laptop within about 20 yards:
GPS compares the timing of radio signals from three or four satellites in space.
Triangulation collects directional signals from two or three cell phone towers.
Wi-Fi local area networks track high-frequency radio signals from millions of transmitters in urban areas.
“There are 40 million Wi-Fi access points - 500,000 in downtown Chicago alone,” Rice said. “We know where they are, [but] we have no record of who you are. The information is anonymous.”
A growing number of companies sell tracking services.
In April, WaveMarket launched a “Family Locator” service that lets a parent pinpoint the whereabouts of a child using Sprint or Nextel cell phones.
Sprint sells a “Mobile Locator” service that it says can “monitor employee location in real-time, either singly or within a group, on a zoomable online map.”
Trucking companies use GPS technology to track the movements of their drivers. The boss knows when a driver takes a break, violates the speed limit or departs from his authorized route…. Full Article Here … a decent read
This is a good resource, especially for confirmed GPS-haters. If you’re extremely concerned that the rising popularity of GPS tracking capability built into cars, mobile devise and even writs watches is going to cramp your style … or negatively impact your business, perhaps, you better read and think over this article.
Unlike a lot of media hype that has no idea how tracking technology works and is not about to learn …write for the 6th graders among us is the rule of many reporters … these folks actually “get” it.
Even if someone somehow passed a law to eliminate GPS tracking or developed a secret jammer they carried around with them to block GPS signals, potentially invasive tracking is not going away. GPS is just one of the technologies used.
The cellular phone carriers are required to locate phones to assist in responses to 911 calls. Since this technology is already in place it’s very easy for commercial companies to “piggyback” on that information and get the location of your phone when you are not calling 911. If you think your cellular carrier won’t sell that information you haven’t investigated the information on mobile phone subscribers that’s already available for a buck or two.
Wi-Fi (802.11) wireless devices are coming into their own as well. I’ve written here several times about a company called “Loki” who offers a service that automatically tells your laptop or wireless PDA where it is whenever you turn it on, and delivers location based advertising and services based on that location. Well …. If your laptop knows where you are? The Loki … or anyone else who wants to do a little hacking … knows where you are too.
If you feel strongly about this privacy issue, I urge you to take the actions available … join privacy organizations, write your elected representatives, post bumper stickers on your car, do like Tony Soprano and have your OnStar ripped out of your new Cadillac … but don’t focus everything on GPS … you can have GPS turned off tomorrow and still be tracked.