Do Device-Tracking Devices Really Enhance Our Lives?

July 24, 2009— -- Not so long ago, if law enforcement officers wanted to track the movement and location of a suspect, they would plant a "bug" on the person, a tracking device to continually monitor the individuals whereabouts.

Location-aware devices provide many benefits to your safety, security and overall convenience. Location-enabled phones improve response time to 911 emergencies and built-in vehicle navigation systems, such as those from OnStar, can send the car's GPS coordinates to emergency personnel.

Other popular location services use GPS satellites, Wi-Fi or cell towers so that users can make better use of their social networks and track where they are in relation to their friends and families. Advertisers can send more relevant ads and, of course, tracking location is an important tool in law enforcement investigations.

But for all its benefits, there is growing concern about just what is happening to the increasing amount of location information being collected by a variety of entities.

Of particular concern is the question of government access. A record of location can provide a detailed portrait of a person's activities and associations. Yet the legal standards for government access to location data held by a range of third parties are unclear, at best.

When Apple introduced its latest iPhone 3GS a few weeks ago, it instantly drew about 40 million iPhone users into the geo-location market, marking the dawn of a new era where our daily activities once considered mundane now can be tracked with ease, speed and accuracy over the Internet.

Apple joins other popular Internet companies that have also recently jumped to make their mobile devices and services location ready. Mozilla's Firefox, the second most popular browser behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, has made it possible for Web sites to ask for users' physical locations.

Google's Latitude service, like early entrants Loopt and Where, make it possible for consumers to see their friends' location (assuming they, too, are using the same service) on a cell phone map.