Posted on 11/21/2005 11:47:03 AM PST by af_vet_rr
If you drive in metropolitan Baltimore and use a cellular phone, somebody might be "watching" as you come and go.
A Canadian company is monitoring the flow of vehicle traffic in the area by using an emerging technology that tracks the constant stream of data generated by drivers' cell phones as they communicate with towers in the network.
Advertisement Maryland highway officials are excited. They plan to use the technology to help traffic move more smoothly. But privacy advocates worry that the system could lead to bigger headaches than a Beltway backup.
...But Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group, says the tracking might violate federal law. Even if it doesn't, he says, it is a dangerous idea.
"This is very much a slippery slope. As we begin making more and more uses of cell phone location information, that increases the chances that information will be used for more invasive purposes in the future," Bankston said. "We are basically developing the surveillance infrastructure that has the capability to track people individually - even if that system is not being used to do that yet."
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Funny how Baltimore, and Maryland in general, sure seem to love these sorts of things.
Another good reason to turn off your cell phone when you are in the car. Not just "hang up and drive", but "hang it up, turn it off, and drive".
I agree, keep it off, except when transmitting..you can always listen to your voicemail or check the missed calls, and call back if you want. Can't be tracked, if it ain't turned on.
If it's not powered, I don't see how it could be remotely controlled.
and the phreaks are exactly correct.
It is powere, unless you physically take the battery out. you just don't know it.
Do you know which brands have this capability?
all of them.
I may be mistaken, but I believe the SIM chip can hold data without power. I will do some testing to see if there is any output from my phone when powered off.
I find this hard to believe, but I will do some testing. How would the base station ID a particular phone, in order to turn it on?
I don't have one. If I'm not home, I don't want to be taking calls anyways. People have gotten used to the fact that they can't reach me 24/7. They still tell me that I "need" a cell phone, but I just can't see it.
I was hiking with a guy once, and he kept answering phone calls. I finally told him to shut it off. I wasn't hiking into the woods to listen to him talk on the damn phone!
If they know where you are and when you are there, then they know how fast you went to go from there to somewhere else. If you go too fast, they can send you a ticket in the mail. It's coming, folks.
I know what you mean. Mine is only turned on when I want to talk to someone, or if I am checking for missed calls.
How would they know that without IDing your particular phone? In order to do that, there has to be constant back and forth transmission of data, that's how the cells know who you are, and when to hand-off to another cell. If this were the case, I would think that the batteries would not last any longer, turned-off, than when turned-on.
Apparently, this requires cooperation from a cell phone company - in this case, Cingular - to track "handoffs" from cell to cell along the highway. Personally, I believe any FReeper who has a Cingular phone should contact the company to complain about this practice. They will notice customer complaints or lawsuits (invasion of privacy?) that threaten their bottom line.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.