The iPhone: The best new gadget or a government tracking device?
With all the classroom discussion of the abilities of electronics andcomputers to track movements, I hardly expected the iPhone to be partof the problem. However, right before my very eyes, the newest iPhonecommercial shows an application that allows you to track people. Thisincludes having access to their location and their activity. I don'tknow the name of the application; if it is free or you have topurchase it. I do not know if you can select the people who view you.I do know that on some basic level that feels wronge to me. Grantedthis information is only available if you choose to upload thatapplication, who is to say apple does not have complete access to thatinformation anyway if you have that application because of the GPSlocator in the phone. It may be hidden from view from other users whodo not have that application but who is to say Apple does not haveaccess.We learned in class and the reading that other companies have beenpetitioned by the government to give up information about theirclients. Cell phone companies keep records of all calls made by theircustomers. The government uses this information in profiling and courtcases. What would prevent them from using this information? Googlerefused to give information out about users who searched for illicitsites. This is ethically admirable, but it is definitely not the norm.These companies sell this information for everything from targetedadvertising to surveillance and even to private citizens. Quoting thereading, that is worse than Orwell's 1984.I for one will never get an iPhone. It may be the wave of the future,but it is certainly not a future I would support if this oneapplication is any indication.
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2 comments:
Wow, I was totally in shock after reading this post. An application on the iPhone in which you can track people-- including their location and activity! That seems absolutely ridiculous and an evident invasion of privacy. Would the person being tracked know that they were being tracked and who was trying to find them? This seems absurd and makes me almost angry that technology has advanced insofar as that this kind of product is being sold to consumers. It also is a scary thought, knowing that there is a way for people to actually track where you are at all times, with new iPhone skills that have been just recently developed. This is when I ask the question "how far is too far" with technological advances being released into the hands of average everyday people. Does a person really need this kind of advancement on their cell phone? Couldn't this tracking device be used in the wrong way very easily-- and isn't it almost inevitable that it would?
I have an iPhone and its true, there is an application that tracks your location. Like Dalis said, it is something that you have to upload and your location can only be tracked if you accept someone’s request or if you send them your current location which is then used with the GPS application that comes on every iPhone. I agree that this technology is very scary, but I don’t think that it is something to be overly concerned about. What I find more shocking is that some companies are using mandatory GPS tracking devices to track their employees. Many sales companies that use a door to door strategy give cell phones to every one of their employees that double as a tracking device. This is in order to ensure diligence and make sure that employees are not wasting company time and money. If monitoring an employee’s performance via random clicking on a computer screen is crossing the line of privacy, I think tracking employees via cell phone is completely unreasonable.
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