Monday, December 22, 2003

One of the best features in my husbands car is Onstar. We have used it many times over that past couple of years to find our way and communicate. Onstar has located his car and can contact emergency services personnel if needed. It is also a feature which in some ways invades your privacy, in seconds they know exactly where you are almost like riding in the car with you. Easy pass is another good and bad tech innovation. Yes it's much better getting through the toll booths when you have one but at the same time the dept. of Trans. and the police can know exactly where you were and how fast you are traveling. You can get a speeding ticket. Now I just learned via another blog soze's bLOG a little about location aware technology that works through cell phones, with the link to this article Lost Hiding? Your Cell Phone is keeping tabs. Real Privacy issues are going to come to the fore as this technology gains in popularity. The good is you can be located through your cell phone when you dial 911. The bad is you can be located by someone who just wants to keep tabs on you for any number of reasons. Do you like being spied on? Not me. There are no laws specific to the use of this technology it's still too new. I wonder what the test case will be.

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