Academic

Is Your Cell Phone Manufacturer Tracking You?

By Dan Filler

Privacy.   We talk about it all the time as an abstract concept.  And we don't pay much close attention until our identity is stolen or our email password has been hacked.  (Yes, both have happened to me.)   But lurking in the background, some folks - and I'll certainly include me on this one - fear the potential of a high-tech Sovietization of the United States.  The government may not actively monitor our whereabouts today, but at some point the technology will be make that sort of tracking incredibly simple to implement...if the government so chose.  We already share so much of our lives through our credit cards.  The FBI may not know where we were last night, but American Express surely does.  And of course the phone company has a pretty good bead on us as well: which cell towers did you use yesterday.  And look, if your phone has GPS...AT&T or Verizon can surely find it in an emergency.

Now it appears that the phone maker may be the most active monitor of all.  We learned yesterday, over at the LA Times, that Palm has programmed its Pre phones to upload GPS location data each day - along with a use record of many of the owner's applications, including messaging. 

It's not news that we're trackable day and night.  It's just that we sometimes forget how many people are actively on our trail.  And if the government really decided to put its potent computers on the project of tracking people, we could all become living, breathing FedEx packages.  For now, though, it's only the marketers who know where we are every minute, every day.  And that, I suppose, is a relief.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on August 14, 2009 (boomark / email).