<p>Can’t they do this with cell phones anyway?</p>
<p>Do I care if the FBI, etc. knows my every move? As long as they don’t leak confidential business info to competitors, I don’t care. I wouldn’t want certain rivals to know I was in a certain city at a certain time. But how can this information be safegaurded? No public or private institution is without corruption. I would hate to see my tax dollars used to fund industrial espionage, either to my benefit or detriment.</p>
<p>The way electronic databases are able to exchange information and with advanced GPS and RFID technologies anyone who really wants to can easily track anyone else. But, heck, a lot of people are making it even easier with all of their Facebook and Twitter postings.</p>
<p>If the government wants to go to all the trouble to put a GPS tracking device on someone’s car then I think it’s fine - they likely have a good reason to and it’s not something they’ll routinely do to everyone. Given the inability of the government to keep track of people they’re supposed to track and prevent from moving around surreptitiously, including sex offenders and illegal aliens, I don’t think the masses have to be concerned. It’s not something that scales well since there aren’t enough people in the government to monitor it for very many people.</p>
<p>Anyone tracking my movements would probably go bored out of their mind watching what I do. I can be tracked via cell phone on the road. Most of the other time, I’m at work, home, ymca, working out, shopping, or the kids’ apartment.</p>
<p>Wait until the government figures out they can monetize this. Then you’ll be getting speeding tickets in the mail every time you drive 2 miles an hour over the speed limit.</p>
<p>It seems to me that this would create a lot of jursidictional and technical problems and that it would be subject to jury nullification anyways.</p>
<p>If someone with a cell phone, computer, GPS or Onstar thinks their movements are not being tracked, they are dead wrong. I agree with the “conspiracy theory” that we are all already being tracked by private businesses for marketing purposes. And some of them (like Google) will keep this information for a long period of time. Some cities install cams and record who comes in and out of there 24/7, then use this info to nab the “criminals” like the lady who had the misfortune of backing her car into a mailbox cluster.</p>
<p>BC - yup, according to the local papers, red light traffic cams create quite a stir in local politics, like this one:</p>
<p>Boy, it scares me when people say, “If you’re not doing anything wrong, why would you care if the government knows where you are and what you’re doing?”</p>
<p>Do you have any idea how many laws are on the books? Hundreds of thousands, and they’re different in every city, county, and state, and you have no idea what they are, and you break a dozen of them every day. Oh, yes, you do. Everyone does. Every single person in America could be cited, fined, arrested, or have some or all of their property confiscated right now for something they’ve done that is technically against the law.</p>
<p>And you know what? If you honestly don’t care if the government tracks your every move without a warrant, then I hope they do, and I hope you get what you deserve: the loss of your money and your freedom.</p>
<p>“If you’re not doing anything wrong, why would you care if the government knows where you are and what you’re doing?”</p>
<p>^^Said the citizens of Russia when Stalin came to power… People argue that the US is not Stalinist Russia… Sure. As m-s pointed out, one can end up in a really deep financial gulag.</p>
<p>To lighten up this topic and add a little humor a real story: Background - Facebook has a mobile interface for cell phones. One new feature is the ability to click a button that immediately broadcasts your location to everyone in your list of friends. In my technology class on Friday, this came up and a student brought up her phone to show me the technology (I don’t have an iphone yet). Anyway, her app listed a number of her friends who had clicked the “locate me” button during the week. I started laughing because about half of her male friends were at a local strip club late last Thursday night. The sad part is that most of them are high school students.</p>
<p>I think many people are too quick to give up their information and so worrying about the government watching them is futile, because we readily broadcast our info anyway.</p>
<p>The GPS tracking is just a convenience. If the government (or anyone) wanted to track someone they already can without it and have been able to forever. It might take them a little more effort but they can always do the tracking manually. Being able to do so via GPS doesn’t really make any of those targets less free of potential tracking than they were before. I don’t know if the fact that they can already do tracking without the GPS helps or hurts the paranoia some people have.</p>
<p>“Anyone tracking my movements would probably go bored out of their mind watching what I do.”</p>
<p>This was my initial reaction too. “What’s he doing at NAPA auto parts again?” Of course I’m a skeptic concerning competence of governmental agencies. Given the opportunity I’m sure they’ll find some way to ensnare innocent citizens while letting criminals roam free. But hey, that’s life in a free society, right?</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Singapore, a country where you are frequently watched by someone. It’s full of hi-rises and there’s a lot of people density so if you’re doing something illegal, someone will probably see it unless you’re doing it in the middle of the night. And even then, some camera somewhere or your cell-phone could give you away.</p>
<p>I think y’all are missing the point: The GPS system was used without a warrant. No judge weighed evidence and granted the police the right to place the tracker on the victim’s car. They just put it there because they wanted to. Is that how you want things to work in our country?</p>
<p>And if the police can do that, then why can’t they tap your phone? Copy the contents of your hard drive? Take your kids out of class and interrogate them? Where does it end?</p>
<p>Phones are going IP which means that everything is digital and can be recorded by your employer, ISP, or phone provider. People install indexing software provided for free by other companies so you could be providing a third-party with an index of your hard drive. Your mail from your free email provider is available to law enforcement for a fee.</p>
<p>As I said, there are countries where there is a fair amount of surveillance already that do just fine. Perhaps you should study the technology. Your operating system probably has backdoors for law enforcement anyways. Your phone may also have this.</p>
<p>I have friends that work in various internet security areas and the amount of stuff already available is considerable. You can choose to be paranoid or live your life.</p>