Your Cell Phone Marks Your Spot

The New York Times reports on the increasing opportunities to track us via our own cell phones. While the prospective benefits of the Global Positioning System (GPS) are alluring, the potential privacy and security breaches create disturbing new issues.

The whole article is worth reading, but I found this paragraph to be thought provoking:

When families adopt positioning cellphone services, a new problem will likely emerge, Professor Mark said. The very act of turning off one’s location beacon may itself be seen as suspicious. “If you don’t want your location known,” he asked, “does that mean you intend to do something improper?”

As Privacy.org points out, can we really trust carriers to assure us that their systems are impervious to threats from stalkers and other malicious intruders or neglectful employees — or from government snoops without search warrants?

Employers are already tracking the every move of remote employees with GPS:

Larry Overley, president of Landtech Contractors, doesn’t have to wonder whether his employees are where they are supposed to be during the work day. Global Positioning System transmitters in each of the 50 trucks the landscaping company operates let him know where they are.

“It cuts down on guys leaving the job site. It helps us with our payroll costs because guys can’t fudge on their time sheet. We know when they get to the job, and we know when they leave the job,” he said.

GPS is definitely a technology you should be mindful of from a privacy and security standpoint.