Yeah, but if Homeland Security decides we need to just leave it on and record everybody everywhere, well, if you're not doing anything wrong, what have you got to hide?It could also raise privacy concerns, but Google is doing its best to avoid a backlash by requiring each user to manually turn on the tracking software and making it easy to turn off or limit access to the service.
Google also is promising not to retain any information about its users' movements. Only the last location picked up by the tracking service will be stored on Google's computers, Lee said. [More]
Any doubts how many of the cud-chewers would go right along with this? Still, it could also be used to provide an alibi...
But it'll be a moot point anyway, as soon as we all get those Tommy Thompson implants.
[Via Tom Z]
Taking the battery out of your phone makes it impossible for it to communicate with cell towers and thereby indicate your position. Turning it off isn't enough.
ReplyDeleteI bet they'll start putting small, concealed backup microbatteries in them for just such an occasion.
Casey Anthony, who apparently killed her toddler in Florida -- they could track her movements on the suspected day of the death MONTHS later. Bright red line on a map with date and times and how long at each location. Next best thing to time travel.
Privacy, like most things, is what the Director of the Ministry of Love says it is.
sounds like the best thing to do is to leave your cellphone hidden somewhere where you'd like the wrong people to go looking.
ReplyDeleteIf the Bill of Rights were jealously defended by politicians and judges then I would have no problem with this feature. As it is, the BoR is nothing but legalease to be reinterpreted as the state sees fit. Making this technology something to be disabled or refused instead of making the best use of it.
ReplyDeleteI've been using ixquick.com for the last couple of days & I find its results very comparable to Google's.
ReplyDeleteIxquick does NOT record your IP address!
Read more on our Privacy position
http://ixquick.com/eng/protect_privacy.html
You can install this in your tool bar and not have to go looking for it in favorites as I've had to do with Scroogle.
This is my default search engine now.
They should require everyone to be tracked to keep us safe from al-quaeda. They hate us because we're free and have bowling alleys and casinos and cars, and we should feel blessed that we have the technology to keep us safe from them. They hate us so much that using their hateful, muslim will they can make 50 story skyscrapers fall symetrically at free fall speed, even when they aren't hit by anything! I think an implantable chip would be great. Then nothing bad can happen. Troops on the streets and emergency camps are good too. We can't have people rioting or starving. If you're against combat brigades on American streets you're against the troops, or you're a coward. As for me, I know that I live in the most free country in the history of the universe, and I'll be damned if I'm going to surrender to Al-Queda. We need to let heroes like Jack Bauer have the tools they need to keep us free. Most importantly, we need to keep terrorists from getting handguns. That's why the no fly list is so important. If banning guns keeps terrorists from getting them, then that's the price of freedom.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/execs.html#larry
ReplyDeleteRead Larry's CV carefully. Notice anything?
You know if *I* were intent on gathering data on the general population at large and storing it, I'd make it fun for people to volunteer the info themselves.
It isn't privacy unless you steadfastly refuse shut your freakin' mouth.
Re cellphone tracking: if you really want to disable it, take out the SIM card too.
ReplyDelete