GPS TRACKING
GPS systems are not new, they've been in the consumer realm for well over a decade, and
most people regard GPS systems as helpful and harmless.
Campers and hikers depend on handheld GPS units to guide them in the wilderness,
and drivers depend on automobile based GPS systems to guide them in the "suburban wilderness".
Until recently. few people even considered the
fact that GPS is not just a one-way system. While you are using GPS to
locate and track your position...someone else can use that same GPS signal to track your position!
Mobile Phone GPS Tracking
(Your phone knows where you Are)
One of the features on many newer model cell phones, is the ability of the mobile phone to provide
all sorts of information. Every mobile phone carrier offers
some sort of "location based service" that allows you to check your phone display for restaurants, movie theaters,
and museums, as well as hotels, airports, and other services.
Did you ever wonder how your phone got so smart???
Did you ever wonder just HOW your telephone knows where the closest theater is??
The answer of course is...GPS. These cell phones have imbedded GPS transmitters in
them. These transmitters continuously broadcast your position (within a few feet), which
allows the phone company network / software to calculate which of these services are closest to you.
This GPS feature sounds (on the surface) like a harmless enough tradeoff...the phone system
has to know your location to provide you with the information you want.
and for those folks interested in this service, their decision to make the
tradeoff in privacy may make sense.
However, for those people who DON'T want the phone company knowing their
every movement 24 hours a day, this feature is an intrusion on their privacy.
If you don't like the idea of the phone company tracking you 24 hours a day,
it appears that the GPS transmitter in the phone can be turned off.
We use the term "appears" because we are not completely certain that
the GPS transmitter is truly turned off...even though the menu says it is.
The manual that came with your phone should have instructions
on how to turn the GPS transmitter off. You will have to
physically key into the cell phone menu to turn off the GPS tracking...because
on all the cell phones we've seen, the GPS Tracking "default setting" is ON .
Last but not least...the US Government has mandated that all cell phones be "GPS enabled"
by the end of 2005 (as part of the E911 effort). This same mandate means that
the mobile telephone manufacturers either have to include circuitry to turn on the GPS chip
any time 911 is dialed...or they need to leave the GPS transmitter on all the time.
Check your specific phone to see what it does.
Automobile GPS Tracking
Your car wants to "Phone Home"
The same GPS tracking process that was just described for cell phones (above) is equally true for
cars and trucks. Every car or truck that has a GPS transmitter,
also has someone on the other end of that transmission.
Unfortunately, unlike your cell phone you can't turn off the GPS
tracking system in your car or truck!!
A good example of this is the General Motors ONSTAR system (although
GM is most certainly not the only automobile manufacturer making these systems).
The GPS receiver /transmitter for ONSTAR is built directly into the car's electrical
system.
GM puts ONSTAR transmitter/receivers in over 50 models of it's
cars and trucks.
This service is sold as a customer convenience (Example: GM can track down your car and unlock
it from satellite if you ever lock your keys in it) and
people who want this sort of GPS integration may not see a problem with it.
However, for those people who don't want their car/ truck beaming their location
information 24 hours a day, this technology may not be so appealing.
The real problem here is not whether you want to use the system or not...the
problem is that you don't have control over the chip imbedded in the electrical system of
YOUR automobile. You don't have the option to turn off the GPS chip.
If GM wants to track you...they can.
What is true for the GM ONSTAR system appears to be true for many
of the other automobile manufacturers.
In addition to the fact
that the consumer can't turn off the GPS chip in his car if he so desires, there
is not good legislation to limit how the GPS information gets used. As of this writing,
I am not aware of limits on GM's usage of that information. It also does not
appear that there are good privacy controls in place for who else can have access to that
information.
James Turner and the Rental Car
The following story has been printed and reprinted several times.
This excerpt of the story was paraphrased from a 2004 Popular Science article
On a chilly morning in October 2000, James Turner, a theater manager, was going to Portsmouth VA.,
to check out a play he wanted to bring to his hometown stage. Half an hour into the trip,
as Turner passed through the town of Westport Conn., he pushed down on the accelerator.
James nudged his rented Chrysler mini van up to 70 miles per hour as he drove
south on I-95. Eleven thousand miles above Turner, four NAVSTAR Global
Positioning System (GPS) satellites were transmitting signals from a tiny receiver located
inside the mini van.
Later, as James traveled along the New Jersey Turnpike, the receiver clocked James
driving 83 mph. By the time Turner reached Virginia, his bank account had been debited an extra $450
by ACME Car Rentals ($150 each for three speeding infractions).
ACME Car Rentals installed the GPS receivers, and contracted with a Canadian firm (AirIQ)
to monitor all vehicles. None of this was revealed to James at the time he rented the car.
Regardless of your personal position on speeding, the mere fact
that this technology is available, easy to use, and (at least so far) not illegal...clearly indicates
the potential for a severe loss of person privacy.
Satellite Security Systems Inc.
(Have GPS...Will Travel)
The following story was taken from "The Washington Post National Weekly Edition...Jan 24-20, 2005
Satellite Security Systems (S3 for short) is one of a growing number of private companies that
provide satellite tracking services to anyone willing to pay. S3's clients include school districts
(for tracking school buses), the District of Columbia and Fairfax County VA; police departments, and private companies.
S3 is also grooming a growing clientele of private individuals, including parents installing GPS
on their teenager's car and spouses trying to keep tabs on each other.
To get an idea of how easily this technology can be misused, one need look no further than recent history.
S3 was involved in an incident in New York where a pilot
hid a GPS tracking device on the car of a female acquaintance. The pilot then called the S3 monitoring center
constantly to get a fix on the woman's position so he could follow her around in a low flying plane. The woman
eventually became suspicious and called the police. The GPS device was discovered and the pilot
was eventually arrested for stalking.
While it may be easy to chuckle at stories such as this, while sitting safely at home,
it may feel a bit more serious if you were the one whose car was "tracked".
The fact that this technology is so readily available and so uncontrolled,
raises growing concern among individuals as well as privacy advocates. The fact that the tracking
data is also unregulated and uncontrolled causes as much (if not more) concern. Once logged
into the S3 database, the company retains the information indefinitely.
S3 is most certainly not the only player in the GPS tracking game, Advantrack, Teletrac, and World GPS Solutions
are only three of the many companies doing this.
A quick "google search" using
keywords of "GPS, automobile, tracking" will bring back pages of information about companies eager
to sell you GPS tracking devices and services.
EDR...(Electronic Data Recorder)
(The "Black Box" in Your Car)
Most people think that only big jet airliners had "black box" recorders in them.
They are wrong. If you drive a new car (depending on the model) you
have an EDR monitoring and recording your cars's activities. While the EDR in
your car captures far less data than that on an airplane, the concept is similar.
Technically speaking, there is no "stand alone" EDR module in a vehicle; rather, the EDR
is a function integrated within one or more modules in the automobile.
For example; the EDR that is part of the airbag sensing and diagnostic module
(SDM) monitors airbag performance and other measures that can affect crash performance, including
crash severity, engine speed, throttle position, braking and safety belt use.
Supposedly, the EDR module in your automobile only remembers the last 4-10 seconds,
(which provides a picture of what was happening just before a crash).
Here is a bit of history....
- In 1976, General Motors (GM) introduced SDM (Sensing & Diagnostic Module) technologies on a
limited number of vehicles. By 1990, General Motors (GM) added DERM (Diagnostic and Energy
Reserve Module) technologies to record closure times for both the arming and discriminating sensors
as well as any fault codes present at the time of deployment of the air bag. During the early 1990's,
General Motors installed sophisticated crash data recorders on 70 Indy Formula One race cars.
From this humble beginning sprang a huge research and legislative effort to make EDR's required
equipment on all cars and trucks.
- In November 1998, the NHTSA Office of Safety Performance Standards (NPS) received a
petition for rulemaking, which requested the government to require Event Data Recorder (EDR)
technology on all new vehicles. This petition was denied because of on-going initiatives...however
the effort to make EDR's mandatory continued.
- In November 1999, the NTSB issued Safety Recommendations H-99-45-54 to NHTSA: which required EDR's
on all school buses and "motor coaches".
- In March 2000, the Vetronix Corporation began selling its Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) system.
The CDR system was the first and only device available to the public that allowed users to download data
from the EDRs installed on passenger and light-duty vehicles.
- In August 2001, the Event Data Recorder (EDR) Working Group Final Report (1000-pages) was issued
emphasizing "Event Data Recorders (EDRs) offer great potential of improving vehicle and highway safety."
The automobile manufacturers have quietly been putting EDR technology in their cars and trucks for well over
a decade.
EDR technology burst out into the public eye in a big way in 2002, when Walter Rhoads was
successfully prosecuted in Pennsylvania (in May 2002) using data taken from his cars' EDR. The Pennsylvania
Highway patrol, without Rhoad's permission, took the EDR information from his wrecked car and used it
to prove his speed and braking just prior to the crash.
In this instance, Rhoads had been driving far too fast and tried to brake only 2 seconds prior to the accident.
However, despite the specifics of Mr. Rhoad's bad driving habits, the mere fact that data from
his automobile was taken without his permission and then used against him in court...creating a troubling
precedent and raises the question....
To whom does the information in your car's EDR belong??
Since 2002 there has been a number of cases (both in the US and Canada) where people have protested
the use of EDR information without their consent.
The results have been mixed, with some courts allowing EDR usage by prosecution
and other not.
In addition to EDR information being used to prosecute, some defendants have offered EDR
information in their defense. Courts have generally accepted this usage of the data.
This web page is not intended to be a primer on EDR case law, rather it is our intent to highlight the
fact that this technology exists and is being used. If you did not know about the EDR in
your car...then you are now a bit wiser. If you have questions about how that data can
(or can not) be used...the only answer we know of is to see a lawyer.
SUMMARY
As electronic technology (such as GPS and EDR) becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, the opportunities for misuse
and abuse abound.
While few people would argue for overly stringent or restrictive rules and regulations on each and every
new technology, it does seem appropriate that the public be made aware of the existence of this technology in
the products they buy. It also seems appropriate that the potential for invasion of privacy surrounding
these technologies, be examined and dealt with. Ironically, the
agencies that are best situated to protect us (Federal State and Local) are also the best situated to become
the biggest abusers. The recent revelations of abuses by the Federal Government (under the Patriot Act)
are classic examples of this problem.
In this area of personal privacy, the old adage is as true as ever...Caveat Emptor "Let the Buyer Beware"
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