Global Position System
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has been on the market for a number of years now. Originally developed by the military for logistical tracking and navigation, it has seen a number of applications for personal and commercial uses in recent years, with more coming down the development pipeline. GPS uses a constellation of low earth orbit satellites to determine the exact longitude, latitude and altitude of the user or vehicle with the tracking monitor. This location is determined by using trilateration between at least three and preferably four satellites overhead.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of 27 satellites orbiting the Earth in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is at an altitude of about 12,000 miles. In this orbit, each satellite makes two complete rotations around the planet everyday and the orbits are arranged so that at any time, there are at least four satellites visible in the sky, anywhere on the planet. The GPS receiver unit on the ground, locates these satellites and figures out the distance to each satellite, and then uses that information to figure out its own location. This process is called trilateration.
Trilateration is a little tricky to explain in 3-dimensional space, but in 2 dimensional spaces, the concept is easier to grasp. Imagine you are somewhere in the Bay Area and are totally lost. However talking to someone on the phone, you somehow find out that you are 40 miles from San Francisco. This, however useful, still doesn’t tell you exactly where you are. Knowing that you are 40 miles from San Francisco puts you anywhere on a circle around the city at a radius of 40 miles. You find out from another source that you are 25 miles from Berkeley. This gives you another circle which intersects the first, and gives you two possible locations where you could be, which are 40 miles from San Francisco and 25 miles from Berkeley. Then if a third person tells you that you are 18 miles from San Jose, you have a third circle which intersects the first two at just one point. This gives you the exact location where you are at that moment. You now know that you are in Fremont at that moment, using the data from the three sources.
Trilateration in 3 dimensional spaces is very similar in concept, except you are dealing with spheres instead of circles. If you know your distance from 3 satellites, it would give you two points where all three spheres intersect. The earth itself creates the fourth sphere and thus determines the location of the receiver. Receivers generally look for four or more satellites to improve accuracy and provide precise altitude information.
Figuring out distance from the satellite requires that the receiver calculate how long the signal took to travel from the satellite to the receiver. Knowing the speed of light, i.e. the speed the electromagnetic waves travel in vacuum, and the time for the signal to travel, the receiver calculates this distance. The system uses the atomic clock to synchronize the clocks on the satellite and the receiver, and then uses these clocks to gauge the elapsed time.
Once all the calculations are complete, it can tell you the latitude, longitude, and altitude of its current position to within two meters accuracy (reduced resolution for civilian applications). To make the navigation more user-friendly, most receivers plug this raw data into map files and that gives the street you might be driving on in a certain direction.
The current GPS is the second generation system with the third generation in the planning stages. This new system will provide better accuracy and new, more sophisticated applications, such as intelligent highway and traffic safety systems.
Some 20 million people now use GPS technology. For this fast growing market there are a number of applications that tailor GPS information for various uses. The most obvious one is personal GPS receivers to determine one?s location in latitude and longitude coordinates anywhere on the planet. People use such devices for mapping locations, finding distances, directions, and finding their way when they are lost. These personal devices first came out for handheld applications, but are not showing up in most mid-scale to luxury vehicles for travelers to find their way in urban and sub-urban locales. Some vehicles even have an active tracking system which can be activated if the driver is in trouble or doesn’t know where they are, and a push of a button helps the control center track that specific vehicle to guide or send help if necessary. Personal devices comes the range of a few hundred dollars, and automobile GPS devices can be in the range of $1000 - $2000.
Another application recently developed is a GPS locator for children that looks like an oversized watch and can tell the parent the exact location of the child at any time. Wherify?s Personal Locator device first uses the cellular phone PCS network to locate the GPS satellites in the sky. Then it locks on to the satellite to get its location. Once the location is determined, the system then uses the PCS network once more to transmit the exact location to the main service, where the parent can get that information. This device also has a lockable cut-resistant wrist band so that it can’t be removed from the child’s hand once locked. A similar device by POMALS has the GPS receiver in the backpack and this too can track the path taken by the child to and from school. If the path varies from the predetermined course, the parent is notified via email, phone, etc. Wherify?s Personal Locator costs $399 plus $24 to $35 per month for the service.
Trilateration is a little tricky to explain in 3-dimensional space, but in 2 dimensional spaces, the concept is easier to grasp. Imagine you are somewhere in the Bay Area and are totally lost. However talking to someone on the phone, you somehow find out that you are 40 miles from San Francisco. This, however useful, still doesn’t tell you exactly where you are. Knowing that you are 40 miles from San Francisco puts you anywhere on a circle around the city at a radius of 40 miles. You find out from another source that you are 25 miles from Berkeley. This gives you another circle which intersects the first, and gives you two possible locations where you could be, which are 40 miles from San Francisco and 25 miles from Berkeley. Then if a third person tells you that you are 18 miles from San Jose, you have a third circle which intersects the first two at just one point. This gives you the exact location where you are at that moment. You now know that you are in Fremont at that moment, using the data from the three sources.
Trilateration in 3 dimensional spaces is very similar in concept, except you are dealing with spheres instead of circles. If you know your distance from 3 satellites, it would give you two points where all three spheres intersect. The earth itself creates the fourth sphere and thus determines the location of the receiver. Receivers generally look for four or more satellites to improve accuracy and provide precise altitude information.
Figuring out distance from the satellite requires that the receiver calculate how long the signal took to travel from the satellite to the receiver. Knowing the speed of light, i.e. the speed the electromagnetic waves travel in vacuum, and the time for the signal to travel, the receiver calculates this distance. The system uses the atomic clock to synchronize the clocks on the satellite and the receiver, and then uses these clocks to gauge the elapsed time.
Once all the calculations are complete, it can tell you the latitude, longitude, and altitude of its current position to within two meters accuracy (reduced resolution for civilian applications). To make the navigation more user-friendly, most receivers plug this raw data into map files and that gives the street you might be driving on in a certain direction.
The current GPS is the second generation system with the third generation in the planning stages. This new system will provide better accuracy and new, more sophisticated applications, such as intelligent highway and traffic safety systems.
Some 20 million people now use GPS technology. For this fast growing market there are a number of applications that tailor GPS information for various uses. The most obvious one is personal GPS receivers to determine one?s location in latitude and longitude coordinates anywhere on the planet. People use such devices for mapping locations, finding distances, directions, and finding their way when they are lost. These personal devices first came out for handheld applications, but are not showing up in most mid-scale to luxury vehicles for travelers to find their way in urban and sub-urban locales. Some vehicles even have an active tracking system which can be activated if the driver is in trouble or doesn’t know where they are, and a push of a button helps the control center track that specific vehicle to guide or send help if necessary. Personal devices comes the range of a few hundred dollars, and automobile GPS devices can be in the range of $1000 - $2000.
Another application recently developed is a GPS locator for children that looks like an oversized watch and can tell the parent the exact location of the child at any time. Wherify?s Personal Locator device first uses the cellular phone PCS network to locate the GPS satellites in the sky. Then it locks on to the satellite to get its location. Once the location is determined, the system then uses the PCS network once more to transmit the exact location to the main service, where the parent can get that information. This device also has a lockable cut-resistant wrist band so that it can’t be removed from the child’s hand once locked. A similar device by POMALS has the GPS receiver in the backpack and this too can track the path taken by the child to and from school. If the path varies from the predetermined course, the parent is notified via email, phone, etc. Wherify?s Personal Locator costs $399 plus $24 to $35 per month for the service.
The same GPS car tracking device can also be used to monitor the teenage driver that is out with your car for the night, the rental car that should honor its time and mileage parameters, or to recover a stolen vehicle. One such system sold by Network car, cost about $995 including first year service. After the first year, the service costs $9/month. This particular device by Network car can also monitor the cars performance and can email the owner and the dealer if anything is wrong or service is due.
Handicapped persons are also benefiting from GPS with a small device that uses a Braille keypad to guide the blind so they are not dependent on others to take them walking around the neighborhood. There are a few bugs to be worked out of this system because city downtown areas have poor reception due to the large buildings which block the satellite signals. With this system, visually handicapped people can enjoy a certain level of independence with the GPS device guiding them around the neighborhood to the local shops, etc.
Now cell phone designs have built-in GPS in them. These new cell phones have a GPS chip in it so the phone signals its location like an electronic beacon. It takes sophisticated technology to locate such phones and the commercial tracking services are still uncommon at present, but more and more are coming online soon. The application of such phones is parents keeping tabs on their kids and also emergency services tracking incoming calls for help from cell phones. Such phones can be tracked to within 50 to 150 meters. Cell phone companies’ stress that the phones are not tracked unless you dial 911 on them. Only then does the automatic tracking start and the location is passed on the local authorities.
Each of these applications listed above has a good motive behind it. From finding your location anywhere on the planet, to tracking your children or dependents to assure their safety, to monitoring your possessions, GPS enabled gadgets seems to provide the power of information in the hands of the responsible party. All these benefits seem to fulfill a previously unmet need. Thus most are relatively easily adopted by the mass public.
Most of the legitimate companies or organizations interested in data collected by GPS services are primarily interested in it for one purpose to increase their product sales. They are hoping that one way or another, this data would paint a better picture of their customers and their habits that could be used to refine the marketing strategy. But this data may be collected without your knowledge or consent. This data, now in the hands of an unknown third party could be very insecure. There are questions raised if that company has any obligations to keep your information data secure and not share it with anyone else. How about if that company’s database is hacked and now your information is in yet another set of unknown hands, does this company have an obligation to inform you? Also, if that company was to go bankrupt, your information that is stored in that company’s database could now be considered an asset and may be sold to someone else to pay off the creditors. Is that acceptable as a professional practice?
Currently each company or entity collecting GPS information is an island of information. One may be tracking the GPS enabled cell phone location and the other me be monitoring where the car with the GPS tracking device travels to. It is very likely in the near future that these islands of information can be combined to create a broader picture of a person. Depending on who is tracking this information and why they are monitoring it, this complete itinerary of where a person went and who he talked to may be incriminating evidence in a court of law. Furthermore, information such as this may be used by the likes of insurance companies to gauge the risk factor of a potential customer. Maybe an automotive insurance company can monitor this GPS information and deny coverage because they deem the client spends too much time driving through a high crime area. Or a health insurance carrier charges very high premiums because they determine that the potential customer lives too close to the seedy part of town.
There is another group of entities that is interested in your GPS data for a very different purpose. These entities might be organizations that need to track individuals for specific reasons. These reasons may be as varied as the FBI tracking a suspect to gather evidence (which is illegal without a warrant), or a private detective hired by one spouse tracking the other spouse suspected of infidelity. Using GPS devices, this could be accomplished using a cell phone or a tracking device in their car or on their person somehow. This data that is gathered is also insecure. Could this GPS data about your whereabouts be called in court by an angry spouse’s divorce lawyer? Chances are that it could be, unless the judge decides that this evidence was gathered illegally.
In a recent case, cops put a GPS tracker on the car of accused murderer William Jackson (after getting a warrant to do so) to trace him as he went to the site where the body of his murdered daughter had been buried. When the case went to the state appellate court, Jackson's lawyers argued that police did not have probable cause to get the warrant. The court said that it didn't matter, since they didn't even legally need the warrant. Thus, that question still needs to be decided.
The legal issues with the information collected from GPS are overwhelming. Is it legal for this information to be collected? If it is collected, can it be used in a court of law? Can this data be used to classify you a certain type of customer, i.e. potential high risk, low risk? These issues need to be answered, or at least addressed, before we charge ahead with this technology, all in the name of progress.
The stakeholders in this arena are the consumers, first and foremost. They have the most to gain by the convenience of the information provided, and the most to lose if that same information gets in the wrong hands. Then there are the companies that collect this information and then sell it. Their business model is based on this technology and they rely on it. Companies such as Wherify depend on GPS and the data it provides because that is the product they sell. Other stakeholders include the government (if they are tracking someone suspicious), detective agencies, and any other company that needs or wants to grow their customer base.
Stakeholders might change as this technology matures and more entities become involved in this process. This would become evident as more applications are developed to harness this data to serve other businesses.
There is no question that GPS technology does provide a lot of good information and the applications that are currently on the market do provide a valuable service. It is a good assumption that that there will be plenty more uses of GPS in the coming years as the system and the technology matures. However, the question remains, what price are we willing to pay for this information and these services?
In our technology enriched world today, privacy is becoming more and more elusive. Even without GPS, there are many activities that we do on a regular basis which can almost as easily be tracked. Take for example the ATM card that has become such an instrumental part of most people’s lifestyles. Most people rarely carry cash because most places accept payment with ATM. What we fail to realize, however, is that all purchases on ATM cards (and credit cards) are also tracked. They give very vital information about who you are, where you are (where the ATM card was used), what you purchased, and what the amount was. This information leaves a trail about you when you are out traveling or to determine your daily routines. Data about where you buy your gas, your groceries, get your haircut, things you buy and pay for online is fair game and is used by agencies to gather a profile on you. Again, most people don’t realize that more and more metropolitan areas use tracking devices alongside roads and freeways to track these transponders in cars. The stated purpose is to monitor traffic flow on the freeway system for reports on the radio and TV.
Now I don’t mean to sound like an alarmist, nor do I think I am being paranoid, in discussing all the other ways we could be monitored. On the contrary, I am merely saying that unless someone lives the way we all lived about 50 years ago, i.e. doing all transactions in cash, etc., it is very difficult to live an anonymous lifestyle. Putting things into perspective, one can now realize that even though GPS is the next step in technologies that, under the guise of helping us, may be used to monitor us, it certainly isn’t the first technology to do so. Despite its potential misuses, I believe the benefits are greater and the security found in knowing that your children are safe, or never getting lost again, are well worth the risk.
Handicapped persons are also benefiting from GPS with a small device that uses a Braille keypad to guide the blind so they are not dependent on others to take them walking around the neighborhood. There are a few bugs to be worked out of this system because city downtown areas have poor reception due to the large buildings which block the satellite signals. With this system, visually handicapped people can enjoy a certain level of independence with the GPS device guiding them around the neighborhood to the local shops, etc.
Now cell phone designs have built-in GPS in them. These new cell phones have a GPS chip in it so the phone signals its location like an electronic beacon. It takes sophisticated technology to locate such phones and the commercial tracking services are still uncommon at present, but more and more are coming online soon. The application of such phones is parents keeping tabs on their kids and also emergency services tracking incoming calls for help from cell phones. Such phones can be tracked to within 50 to 150 meters. Cell phone companies’ stress that the phones are not tracked unless you dial 911 on them. Only then does the automatic tracking start and the location is passed on the local authorities.
Each of these applications listed above has a good motive behind it. From finding your location anywhere on the planet, to tracking your children or dependents to assure their safety, to monitoring your possessions, GPS enabled gadgets seems to provide the power of information in the hands of the responsible party. All these benefits seem to fulfill a previously unmet need. Thus most are relatively easily adopted by the mass public.
Most of the legitimate companies or organizations interested in data collected by GPS services are primarily interested in it for one purpose to increase their product sales. They are hoping that one way or another, this data would paint a better picture of their customers and their habits that could be used to refine the marketing strategy. But this data may be collected without your knowledge or consent. This data, now in the hands of an unknown third party could be very insecure. There are questions raised if that company has any obligations to keep your information data secure and not share it with anyone else. How about if that company’s database is hacked and now your information is in yet another set of unknown hands, does this company have an obligation to inform you? Also, if that company was to go bankrupt, your information that is stored in that company’s database could now be considered an asset and may be sold to someone else to pay off the creditors. Is that acceptable as a professional practice?
Currently each company or entity collecting GPS information is an island of information. One may be tracking the GPS enabled cell phone location and the other me be monitoring where the car with the GPS tracking device travels to. It is very likely in the near future that these islands of information can be combined to create a broader picture of a person. Depending on who is tracking this information and why they are monitoring it, this complete itinerary of where a person went and who he talked to may be incriminating evidence in a court of law. Furthermore, information such as this may be used by the likes of insurance companies to gauge the risk factor of a potential customer. Maybe an automotive insurance company can monitor this GPS information and deny coverage because they deem the client spends too much time driving through a high crime area. Or a health insurance carrier charges very high premiums because they determine that the potential customer lives too close to the seedy part of town.
There is another group of entities that is interested in your GPS data for a very different purpose. These entities might be organizations that need to track individuals for specific reasons. These reasons may be as varied as the FBI tracking a suspect to gather evidence (which is illegal without a warrant), or a private detective hired by one spouse tracking the other spouse suspected of infidelity. Using GPS devices, this could be accomplished using a cell phone or a tracking device in their car or on their person somehow. This data that is gathered is also insecure. Could this GPS data about your whereabouts be called in court by an angry spouse’s divorce lawyer? Chances are that it could be, unless the judge decides that this evidence was gathered illegally.
In a recent case, cops put a GPS tracker on the car of accused murderer William Jackson (after getting a warrant to do so) to trace him as he went to the site where the body of his murdered daughter had been buried. When the case went to the state appellate court, Jackson's lawyers argued that police did not have probable cause to get the warrant. The court said that it didn't matter, since they didn't even legally need the warrant. Thus, that question still needs to be decided.
The legal issues with the information collected from GPS are overwhelming. Is it legal for this information to be collected? If it is collected, can it be used in a court of law? Can this data be used to classify you a certain type of customer, i.e. potential high risk, low risk? These issues need to be answered, or at least addressed, before we charge ahead with this technology, all in the name of progress.
The stakeholders in this arena are the consumers, first and foremost. They have the most to gain by the convenience of the information provided, and the most to lose if that same information gets in the wrong hands. Then there are the companies that collect this information and then sell it. Their business model is based on this technology and they rely on it. Companies such as Wherify depend on GPS and the data it provides because that is the product they sell. Other stakeholders include the government (if they are tracking someone suspicious), detective agencies, and any other company that needs or wants to grow their customer base.
Stakeholders might change as this technology matures and more entities become involved in this process. This would become evident as more applications are developed to harness this data to serve other businesses.
There is no question that GPS technology does provide a lot of good information and the applications that are currently on the market do provide a valuable service. It is a good assumption that that there will be plenty more uses of GPS in the coming years as the system and the technology matures. However, the question remains, what price are we willing to pay for this information and these services?
In our technology enriched world today, privacy is becoming more and more elusive. Even without GPS, there are many activities that we do on a regular basis which can almost as easily be tracked. Take for example the ATM card that has become such an instrumental part of most people’s lifestyles. Most people rarely carry cash because most places accept payment with ATM. What we fail to realize, however, is that all purchases on ATM cards (and credit cards) are also tracked. They give very vital information about who you are, where you are (where the ATM card was used), what you purchased, and what the amount was. This information leaves a trail about you when you are out traveling or to determine your daily routines. Data about where you buy your gas, your groceries, get your haircut, things you buy and pay for online is fair game and is used by agencies to gather a profile on you. Again, most people don’t realize that more and more metropolitan areas use tracking devices alongside roads and freeways to track these transponders in cars. The stated purpose is to monitor traffic flow on the freeway system for reports on the radio and TV.
Now I don’t mean to sound like an alarmist, nor do I think I am being paranoid, in discussing all the other ways we could be monitored. On the contrary, I am merely saying that unless someone lives the way we all lived about 50 years ago, i.e. doing all transactions in cash, etc., it is very difficult to live an anonymous lifestyle. Putting things into perspective, one can now realize that even though GPS is the next step in technologies that, under the guise of helping us, may be used to monitor us, it certainly isn’t the first technology to do so. Despite its potential misuses, I believe the benefits are greater and the security found in knowing that your children are safe, or never getting lost again, are well worth the risk.
References
Ashley, S. (2003). Next-Generation GPS. Scientific American, 289(3), 34. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Brain, Marshall, and Tom Harris. "How GPS Receivers Work" 25 September 2006. HowStuffWorks.com.
Burt, E. (2003). Traffic Cop On Board. Retrieved from Personal Finance. March 2003:26
Croal, G. (2002) A Tracker in Your Kid’s Backpack. Retrieved from Newsweek. 11/25/2002:69.
Doherty, B. Warrantless Tracking. Retrieved from Reason, August 2003:11
Pohl, O. (2003). Alternative Currents: GPS For the Blind. Popular Science, 263(2), 18. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Sager, I. (2003) Your Mouse Knows Where Your Car Is. Retrieved from Business Week, 10/27/2003:16.
Bibliography
Barbour, I. (1993). Ethics in an Age of Technology. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco.
Rachels, J. (1998). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. McGraw-Hill Companies.
