How GPS technology could violate your privacy

AnchorDesk

How GPS technology could violate your privacy

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Friday, June 6, 2003

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Today's column deals with technology, ethics, cool gadgets, bad employees, cheating spouses, stolen cars, reckless teenagers, Mexican tourism, traffic accidents, and, oh yes, Father's Day gifts. If I missed any hot-button issues, please drop me a note. Oh, and this column is also 100 percent Microsoft-free.

The topic was raised by my former radio producer, Chuck Fishman, who now works for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network. He wanted me to do an interview (which airs this morning) about the use and abuse of GPS systems and whether the rewards of that technology outweigh its risks.

HERE'S THE THREAT: You can now easily purchase equipment that uses GPS technology to track a vehicle either in real time or by recording its movements for playback and analysis later. The driver and occupants of the vehicle need not know this is happening, and the person who places the device need not physically follow the vehicle.

This equipment is available for a few hundred dollars--fancier gear sells for more than $1,000--from companies (such as this one) that sell all kinds of spy gear. (I know nothing about that particular vendor; it's just one example you can find on Google.)

I can think of no reason why this equipment wouldn't work as advertised. The GPS equipment I already own could be set to do the same thing, though not as easily as this special-purpose gear.

Obviously, if I just dropped one of these gizmos in your car, I'd be violating your privacy. But suppose I had teenagers and was worried about where they were taking the family car. Would I be violating their privacy or simply exercising my parental responsibilities? What if, as an employer, I dropped one into a company car to keep track of it? Would I be violating the privacy of my employees? Do those employees have any right to privacy in work-related matters? As for cheating spouses, is all really fair in love and war?

A federal court recently ruled that police "bumper beeper" transmitters used to track vehicles aren't a privacy violation. Why? Because the person is driving in public and can be readily observed.

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, a car rental agency made news for monitoring its cars to make sure customers weren't speeding. At the time, most people seemed to think that was overboard. I've heard of rental companies using GPS technology to make sure vehicles aren't taken into Mexico. Trucking companies are already using GPS-based automated vehicle monitoring (AVM) systems to transmit truck locations back to dispatchers.

At the other end of the spectrum is something like the OnStar system, which uses GPS to plot the location of a vehicle. The service can, for example, call a vehicle when its airbag activates; if there's no answer or if someone in the vehicle confirms that there's been an accident, the system can send help. You could argue about whether or not this service is worth $16.95 a month; I know I'd sleep better if the people I care about had it in their cars.

OnStar can also be used--at the request of police only--to find a stolen vehicle. (No, you can't just call and ask where your car is.) If law enforcement shows up with a warrant, the OnStar people tell me they'd cooperate. So if the bad guys are driving an OnStar-equipped vehicle, they're already halfway to jail. Is that a privacy violation? I suppose if Saddam reappears and is elected President (of the USA), this could be bad stuff. But I'm not lying awake at night worrying about it.

SO I COME DOWN squarely in the middle: This technology is neither inherently good nor bad; it's what you do with it. Save a life and it's great. Commit a crime and it's bad.

I'm much less wishy-washy about GPS technology generally: I love it. With Father's Day coming up, I'd like to offer some quick GPS gift ideas:

I'm not wild about the current crop of PDA-based GPS devices. The Pocket PC products with which I'm most familiar work better than previous versions and all do the job. But they also have some significant limitations, especially when it comes to turn-by-turn navigation tools in a moving car. On the other hand, if you already own a Pocket PC, adding the GPS functionality could make sense.
If you want turn-by-turn navigation for your car, I'd recommend buying a car with the system built-in. If you want an add-on, the model I recommend right now is the Garmin StreetPilot III. (See CNET's review here.) The company's less expensive GPS III is nice, too. But if you can spare the money, buy an SP III instead.
For outdoor use, I recommend a handheld GPS unit. The high-end models allow you to upload street or topographic maps into the unit's memory, which is very handy for figuring out where you are, where you need to be, and the best route in between. I generally prefer the current Magellan models over the Garmins, but Garmin's new Geko models start for around $100 and are good, bare-bones tools.
The Garmin Rino line consists of two combination GPS/FRS radio devices, the 120 and the 110. This means you can use the radio to talk to other FRS radio users or to transmit your position to the display of another Rino. These things work really well and are really cool, but, because FRS radios operate at such low power, their range can be limited.

That's my quick take on the GPS market right now. It's an area I follow and will update you on in more detail soon. If you're shopping for Father's Day, I'd say that Garmin and Magellan units won't disappoint--the two vendors are hotly competitive and are always leapfrogging one another for price/performance leadership.

What do you think? Do you think GPS technology is a threat to your privacy? Or do the benefits outweigh the risks? TalkBack to me!

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