Location Tech Will Tell Police Your TV Was Stolen, Slow You Down And Make You Pay Tolls
AMetamorphosis writes in with a link to a story about how police are excited about people putting wireless location-based technology in everything they own, so that the products can “call the police” themselves if they’re being stolen. Consider it “lojack for everything”. The title of the article is a little misleading – the technology doesn’t actually “tell” anyone it’s being stolen. It would just let police look up where it is. The article doesn’t give much in the way of details as to what the technology actually is, but they suggest it’s the same sort of technology being used for E911 and other mobile phone location-based information tools. Of course, no one in the article mentions the privacy concerns this might raise. Though, considering most of the objects that would use this are probably unlikely to move very often, that’s probably not as big of an issue. However, the article also mentions that some UK police want to install GPS systems in cars that would automatically regulate their speed. This isn’t new. They’ve been saying this for at least three and a half years – and every time people freak out at the idea. There’s almost no way it will ever get past the idea stage. Meanwhile, in another article submitted by the same person, we find out that the European Space Agency wants to use GPS systems to build a pan European road tolling system. That’s right. It would monitor where you are at all times, the distance you traveled and then send you the bill. Consider it a “driving tax”. Again, there’s no discussion of the privacy issues – which certainly would come into play in any such offering. This sounds similar to a plan that was suggested in Oregon earlier this year and people reacted angrily to it for a variety of very good reasons.
