Could GPS tracking be Big Brother?

[widescreenforever]

Since your device on your dashboard is registered to your Log in name (for updates etc on the PC,,) could your "traveling in life" be documented?
Like how many times do you go to Starbucks in a week? Is your wife finished her shopping yet and is coming home? ( or worse).,,
Is your young adult children at home nearby and if so can they run an errand for you since they maybe in the right neighborhood?

Could Uncle Sam watch your speed and issue your GPS device a speeding ticket?, if detected, my monitoring your driving habits

You know we are only in the infancy of GPS and who knows what may be the ' norm' in 20 years from now ??????????????

 

[canderson]

If it's a real concern, just avoid units with "Live" services, and don't bother sending back any of the data through Home when you connect. The end user can easily deal with both.

As it is, were it to be discovered that TomTom was providing its information to any 3rd party without a court order, they'd be out of business before you could say "Garmin".

 

[widescreenforever]

actually I would like to be able to see/ track whereabouts on a gps .. ( to a point No speeding tickets please) ..

I mean look where facebook is today.. You can see if your friends are all at the mall..

If your car is stolen and the gps is turned on ,, The thief could be be tracked .. and caught ..

Starbucks and a whole lot of other places of business would be indebted to the new service ....

 

[dhn]

Many automobile models now come with 'black boxes' very similar to what commercial airlines have.

Your speeds, locations, etc are tracked via that data now.

 

[canderson]

Many automobile models now come with 'black boxes' very similar to what commercial airlines have.

Your speeds, locations, etc are tracked via that data now.

That might be confusing two separate technologies. Many vehicles have the ability to record recent "events" - for example, they can actually determine if the seat belts were buckled when the air bags deployed, and I'm sure the insurance boys had something to do with that - but they don't transmit anything, and aren't readily accessible. Many of the manufacturers didn't even make their existence public until called on it.

The On-Star type device could actually transmit location on demand. Still requires a warrant to get them to provide any live information, though, as do the folks at Lo-Jack.

FWIW, the 9th Circus Court of Appeals has denied the FBI use of the ability to listen in on in-vehicle conversations on the On-Star units.

 

[canderson]

I mean look where facebook is today.. You can see if your friends are all at the mall..

You're describing TomTom's "Buddies" Live service there. Done deal.

If your car is stolen and the gps is turned on ,, The thief could be be tracked .. and caught ..

As noted above, several options already in play for that one. I suppose the GPS manufacturers using cell technology could participate if they were in the mood. So far, haven't heard a peep from them.

Starbucks and a whole lot of other places of business would be indebted to the new service ....

Selling the info to 3rd parties - that would be downright hairy, not to mention unlawful at the moment unless the owner would be fully informed - at least as I read things in Europe and the U.S. Geez, watch the "Cookie Wars" in Congress these days. Even that means for collecting marketing data has come under scrutiny, and it doesn't even identify your exact location!

 

[gatorguy]

But we can create our own privacy issues when we don't understand exactly what we just agreed to when installing software. Many times we do give the developer the right to gather trip statistics from our devices, sometimes anonymously and sometimes not. We also may give them the right to share that data with certain 3rd party entities. Other times they've asked for and been granted your permission to share location data by using confusing or less than clear language in the disclaimer. Many of the app or device developers have become quite skilled at masking exactly what data they're gathering and how they've gained your OK to do so. I'd wager than most of us have granted permission to some bank, credit card company, gps manufacturer or software developer for data gathering that we never intended for them to have.