Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Tag: tracking

  • Amusing side effect

    Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about a new game Google is developing for Android, called Ingress. I’ve noticed that so far nobody seems to have noticed an unintended (presumably) consequence of the game: people playing it will be traveling around to libraries, post offices, courthouses, fire stations, monuments, and the like, standing around for several minutes, and then moving on to another location in a seemingly random pattern.

    What the people writing about Ingress as a game seem to have missed is that it’s fairly well known by people who pay attention that the government tracks everyone’s movements using the location data from their cell phone services. The strange and erratic movements of Ingress players are bound to drive the secret policemen responsible for such spying berserk, which I consider to be a huge benefit. I’m considering getting a Nexus 7 just so I can help confuse Big Brother.

  • Are they certain about the reasons?

    Analyst: Only one in ten tablets sold has a cellular connection. It’s clear that people are willing to pay for new tablets, but it’s also clear that they aren’t yet ready to take on the fee for cellular connectivity to their tablets. [MacCentral]

    Personally, I don’t care about the fee, but I refuse to volunteer to carry a tracking and surveillance device around with me. The idea that I’d pay to carry one is just insulting.

  • More police state surveillance

    No Warrant Required in U.S. for GPS Tracking.

    At least, according to a U.S. District Court ruling:

    As the law currently stands, the court said police can mount GPS on cars to track people without violating their constitutional rights — even if the drivers aren’t suspects.

    Officers do not need to get warrants beforehand because GPS tracking does not involve a search or a seizure, Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel based in Madison.

    That means “police are seemingly free to secretly track anyone’s public movements with a GPS device,” he wrote.

    The court wants the legislature to fix it:

    However, the District 4 Court of Appeals said it was “more than a little troubled” by that conclusion and asked Wisconsin lawmakers to regulate GPS use to protect against abuse by police and private individuals.

    I think the odds of that happening are approximately zero.

    [Schneier on Security]

    I agree. Also note that this really only applies to cops spying on drivers who don’t have cell phones. If you’ve got a cell phone, it’s simpler and cheaper for the cops to spy on you using the tracking device you paid for and volunteered to carry around rather than going to the trouble of bugging your car.