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Slashdot points to a ZD article that explains how Oregon and Washington state have recieved money from the U.S. federal government to institute mileage based tolls using GPS. The article points out “there is no provision in place to prevent the uncontrolled surveillance of motorists without a court order.”
Smartmobs points to an article in eSchoolNews that details the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT or around here “the Institute”) new real time mapping of its new wireless campus network. The maps are now shown at the MIT Museum and are available to those on the network. If community members like they can share their identity on the map. While there is no map (why not? security?) there is this description:
Red splotches on one map show the highest concentration of wireless users on campus. On another map, yellow dots with names written above them identify individual users, who pop up in different places depending where they’re logged in.
The article does reveal some less than astonishing patterns.
The maps show, for example, that the bulk of wireless users late at night and very early in the morning are logged on from their dorms. During the day, the higher concentration of users shifts to classrooms.
But researchers also found study labs that once bustled with students are now nearly empty as people, no longer tethered to a phone line or network cable, move to cafes and nearby lounges, where food and comfy chairs are more inviting.
Wired reports on two recent cases were lower courts turned down Department of Justice requests for locational information associated with the phones of citizens. Both judges, one from Texas and one from New York basically said “no way” without probable cause. DOJ is expected to appeal and its likely Congress will at some point have to clarify the laws on this data.
Make (magazine from O’Reilly, which we get in my house) has details of a cheapo GPS tracking solution that includes a pre-paid Boost mobile phone a free app and Google Maps. It’s “(pretty much free if you have the phone, or $60 if you go pre-paid + 0.20 / day).”
The Associated Press reports that Missouri Department of Technology is just about done with a contract to track the location of cell phones to track traffic on the highways. The data will all be anonymous, but privacy advocates are concerned. Other cities, including Baltimore, Norfolk, Va., and around Atlanta use such data but not for real time relay for traffic management. This’d be the first use of such data across a whole state, much of which is rural.
(via SmartMobs)
