Declan McCullagh
Your cell phone is probably a GPS tracking device
Wed Aug 6 02:57:37 2003
64.140.158.137

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FC: Your cell phone is probably a GPS tracking device
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:06:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh declan@well.com


[Read on for Brendan Koerner's left-leaning, anti-corporate opinion piece.
It makes some valid points, such as the unclear rules governing wireless
companies sharing your GPS location with police. But Koerner fails to
recognize that it was Congress that mandated tracking technology and place
the blame appropriately, and fails to note that it is the FCC's regulatory
apparatus (again, thanks to Congress) that prevents companies from
offering more flexible, privacy-sensitive services. He also fails to
recognize that wireless competition is alive and well, with half a dozen
large providers in the U.S. -- and if one company is too intrusive with
GPS-enabled ads, others will be happy to seize that opportunity to offer
better alternatives. --Declan]


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003 10:16:10 -0400
From: Monty Solomon
Subject: Your Cellphone is a Homing Device

Your Cellphone is a Homing Device

Don't want the government to know where you are? Throw away your
cell, stop taking the subway, and pay the toll in cash.

By Brendan I. Koerner

IF YOU PURCHASED A NEW CELLPHONE over the past 18 months or so, odds
are that one of the features listed in small print on the side of the
box was "E911 capable." Or, as in the case of my latest Motorola,
"Location technology for piece [sic] of mind." Perhaps you asked the
salesman to explain the feature, and he replied that it means that
cops can home in on your phone in case of an emergency, a potentially
important perk should you ever find your hand pinned beneath an
immovable boulder in rural Utah, as Aron Ralston did recently.
Assuming he could have gotten a signal, an E911-capable phone might
have saved the young backpacker the pain of having to amputate his
own arm.

What your salesman probably failed to tell you-and may not even
realize-is that an E911-capable phone can give your wireless carrier
continual updates on your location. The phone is embedded with a
Global Positioning System chip, which can calculate your coordinates
to within a few yards by receiving signals from satellites. GPS
technology gave U.S. military commanders a vital edge during Gulf War
II, and sailors and pilots depend on it as well. In the E911-capable
phone, the GPS chip does not wait until it senses danger, springing
to life when catastrophe strikes; it's switched on whenever your
handset is powered up and is always ready to transmit your location
data back to a wireless carrier's computers. Verizon or T-Mobile can
figure out which manicurist you visit just as easily as they can
pinpoint a stranded motorist on Highway 59.

....

http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/July-August-2003/feature_koerner_julaug03.html