Should GPS Tracking Be Illegal?

Here’s an item again from my frequent search queries. One of the most popular Google searches that lands here at the “ROI Place” is one form or another of the question “Cant we make tracking others illegal”? or at the very least “defeat GPS” at will?

I’m sure many of the folks who do come here under that banner leave in a huff when they get the impression that I am pretty much a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the technology. But I’m not a rabid supporter and I have written a number of articles that counsel against thinking that GPS Tracking is the one-size-fits-all solution to every problem. Even my friends at the Phoenix Insurgent sometimes agree with me. You might want to review some of my articles in the GPS Help or Hurt or GPS and PAYD categories.

But even though GPS Tracking is not always the best solution to every problem, should it be made illegal? Here are some pros and cons as I see them:

Pros of Making GPS Tracking Illegal:

• It will protect people’s privacy to a greater extent. It certainly won’t enhance people’s privacy to the extent many think it will, because there are so many other “behind the scenes” method where we all are tracked, but indeed it will eliminate some of the more obvious.
• It will protect “the state” and private organizations from collecting more data than they can possibly use. Many folks, especially those proposing large scale efforts, such as tracking every sex offender or parolee, will soon drown in their information based on the extent of planning (or lack of same) which I see both professionally and privately.
• It will drive other methods of improving surveillance and information gathering. Methods such as RFID tags and ‘gateways’ to track entry and exit into restricted areas may be a lot better than collecting/controlling what is necessary than actually tracking movements.

Cons of Making GPS Tracking Illegal:

• First of all it’s hard as heck to imagine how you can do this. It’s a lot like a huge expansion of the ideas of banning radar detectors. It’s easy to make the laws, but it’s hard as heck to envision how you could enforce the law, effectively and economically.
• It leaves a real gap in many areas. As an example, highway GPS Tracking of commercial vehicles is a well established technology that has a huge proven ROI. What part will you make illegal? Private usage as opposed to commercial? Law enforcement agencies only? What about Homeland Security? What about police using GPS Track9ng to attempt to find a kidnapped child?
• Throwing the baby out with the bath water. Once you try to make something useful and already well entrenched you run the real risk of hurting much more than you help. If the technology was brand new, or if it was controllable at central locations a ban would make much more sense. But today, sorry to say to those who want a ban, there just doesn’t seem to be any practical way to “put the poop back in the donkey”.

Whet do you think? Comments are open and guest editorials will be welcomes.