Digital Tracking Devices Coming Soon

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 30 -- Imagine walking by a Starbucks in an unfamiliarcity. Your cell phone rings, and a coupon for coffee pops up on itsscreen, good only at that location.

How did your phone know you were even near that particularStarbucks? What else does it know about you?

Enter location tracking, coming to a mobile device near you.Features that one day can pinpoint your whereabouts to within thelength of a football field raise enormous privacy concerns, butthey also offer enormous benefits.

The challenge will be determining where to draw the line.

Digital Angel

Consider a technology to be unveiled today. Called DigitalAngel, a microchip worn close to the body promises to record aperson’s biological parameters and send distress signals duringmedical emergencies.

But misused, these types of capabilities could amount to virtualstalking.

Cell phones, handheld devices, even car navigation systems willsoon have detailed tracking abilities, if they do not already.Services could begin appearing within a year or so.

Much of the drive will come from a federal law that requirescell phones to identify callers’ locations to speed 911 emergencyresponses. If the industry has to install expensive equipmentanyway, why not use it also to make money?

“There’s going to be a dramatic increase in the amount oftracking that’s made possible, in part by services they don’t knowthey have,” said Daniel J. Weitzner of the World Wide WebConsortium, which sets technical standards for the Web.

Such tracking will let someone visit a Web site andautomatically get weather, movie showings or neighborhoodrestaurants, based on their current location. If they’re lost, theywill be able to ask for turn-by-turn directions. Those short ofcash can be pointed to the nearest bank machine.

Big Brother Always With Us?

But if the information is stored, location tracking could resultin a 24-hour-a-day record of a person’s whereabouts.