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Don't forget the beautiful, shiny tracking devices most of us pay a lot of money to carry around.
by cabinguy 14y ago
Don't forget the beautiful, shiny tracking devices most of us pay a lot of money to carry around.
- jrockway 14y agoWe pay for the on-the-go data and voice connectivity, not for the tracking.
- rdtsc 14y agoTrust me you are paying for tracking too. You might not want to pay for tracking but you are paying for it.
- jrockway 14y agoRight, and taxes are the government robbing my family at gunpoint. I remember now. Reddit is having their orange-and-grey color scheme day today and I thought I was reading HN. Sorry.
- rdtsc 14y agoNo phone tracking technology was donated by William and Melinda Gates Foundation and other charitable funds and trusts, you as a consumer totally did not pay for it.
- notdrunkatall 14y agoIf you are tracked by a system which sustains itself on the money you pay into that system, you are paying to be tracked.
- jrogers65 14y ago> Right, and taxes are the government robbing my family at gunpoint. To be fair, they will come after you with guns if you stop paying taxes.
- lostlogin 14y agoYour government might. Mine will be grumpy, but is largely gun free. New Zealand.
- mc32 14y agoIndeed. One thing to remember is that Joe public mostly cares that their 'privacy' isn't casually browsable by people-at-large and that such information isn't broadcast. (ex. public records vs the furore about releasing gun ownership in some town in NY state) People know that credit card companies can know their purchasing history. People know that phone companies know who they call and who calls them (how would they bill them, otherwise). People know health providers have their medical data. They trust that the data will be used 'somewhat judiciously'. Most will not care that bored nurses or interns browse their health records for whatever reason (it could be legitimate for research, etc.) What people care about is that data about them isn't released such that it could damage them (don't let it be known to friends they pay for sex, don't let it be known I don't need the Rx I have, etc). That's what they care about. They also bet that for the most part they are going to be uninteresting to a gov't or private organization who have data about them, so they are willing to forgo strict privacy for the occasional govt'l snoop, or company insider who peruses information then they are bored (hey, guy who works at PacTelesys, can you get me the unlisted number for my ex)? but on the other hand might be an aid to policing tax cheats, felons, etc.
- baggers 14y agoI have no idea of the answer to this question but I'd like to hear from you folks: Given that these lovely shiny devices aren't going away (phew!), is there a technological fix to being tracked? I mean, signals need to reach the phone so the location of the phone needs to be known. What is out there that could allow us to use this awesome technology without essentially handing our every waking movement to a 3rd party who can be easily forced to hand the data over?
- BCM43 14y agoAs far as I can see, nothing. You need to authenticate to the cell networks to receive phone calls, and when you do that they get your location. Even if they don't know whose phone it is, it's not very hard to figure out based on where they go. I simply don't carry a cell phone. I've found it does not impact my life as much as you would expect. I simply make plans ahead of time.
- malandrew 14y agoCan we at least build a device that tunnels everything we do on the device to one or more servers under our control in other jurisdictions via SSL so that the only information that can be gathered from a device is GPS location data and nothing else?
- BCM43 14y agoYes, that's already possible as long as you trust the operating system. But it seems like people are really concerned about the GPS location data.