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Saturday, October 15, 2005:

Ominous indeed

I suppose it's only a matter of time before we're constantly tracked, and the government knows where we are at all times, but it all sounds a bit scary to me:

In what would be the largest project of its kind, the Missouri Department of Transportation is finalizing a contract to monitor thousands of cell phones, using their movements to map real-time traffic conditions statewide on all 5,500 miles of major roads.

The article mentions that in addition to the (supposedly anonymous) monitoring of traffic conditions, cell phone data could theoretically be used to monitor speeding--I don't know how it works exactly, but you can imagine computer screens of call phone data being analyzed to see which ones were going 80 in a 60 MPH zone ... and then getting a traffic ticket in the mail.

I understand that in Britain they monitor traffic conditions much more closely with cameras than we do here in the US, and it's common practice to get a traffic ticket in the mail.

It's getting harder and harder to live without being constantly in the view of some sort of technology.

Mo. May Track Cell Phones for Traffic Data - Yahoo! News

Link from textually.org

[ Posted by Willa at 9:44 AM ] link me

 

Comments:
I learned at work this week that if you bought a phone in 2005 it has GPS already in it making it possible for people to track you - (how did I learn this? Talking about how we could use mobile devices to market - we had a company come in and talk to us. Anyway - they described people who, once they know this fact, become wary of marketing and their cell phones as "Spooked Consumers." I rose my hand and said, "um, hi. add my name to the list."
 

 

Yeah, me too. I guess it's a trade-off between having the technology and using it to its full, not-always-acceptable, potential, but I don't like it much.
 

 

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