S3 is only one company making use of GPS. In the past year or so, prompted in part by a federal mandate requiring most cell phones to be GPS-enabled by the end of 2005 for enhanced 911 service, the price of the technology and other location-based gadgets dropped low enough to make them affordable for mass consumption.
Nextel Communications Inc., for example, offers its subscribers phone-tracking ability for as little as a $15 activation fee, and Sprint Corp. is expected to roll out a similar offering this year. A company called Wherify Wireless Inc. plans to sell an inexpensive GPS tracker at Wal-Mart stores starting this spring. Companies such as United Parcel Service Inc. and SuperShuttle International Inc. are requiring workers to keep a GPS system on them throughout the day. Police in several major cities are tagging cars of suspects in criminal investigations with GPS units.
Maribeth Luftglass of Fairfax County Public Schools said drivers were initially nervous about having their movements monitored with GPS, something she can do from her laptop.
(Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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The growing use of location-based technology is prompting a backlash from those who worry about its potential for invading people's privacy. The Teamsters and other unions, for instance, have fought for new language in their contracts that limits the use of data collected by the devices in order to discipline workers. Snowplow operators in Boston protested when the state announced it would ask them to carry GPS-enabled cell phones.
Laws and legal precedent are often unclear about when and how GPS devices can be used. A federal judge in New York recently ruled that police have a right to place tracking devices on vehicles without a warrant because the drivers should have no expectation of privacy on public roads. But on Jan. 1, California became the first state to restrict car rental companies' use of GPS to track customers. The new law was adopted after at least one company fined customers $3,000 because their GPS system indicated the cars had crossed the state line into Nevada -- a violation of the rental agreement.
GPS is a navigation system operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. It relies on satellites that continuously broadcast their position and the time and date, creating a sort of grid of the planet. GPS receivers on the ground -- be they attached to vehicles or cell phones or other gadgets -- collect signals from the satellites and use that information to calculate their own whereabouts.
Superimposing these coordinates on maps pinpoints street addresses and landmarks nearby. By taking readings at different times, the system can also calculate speed and direction.
So many people and vehicles are now being tracked by GPS that the White House announced in December that President Bush had ordered plans for shutting down the GPS satellites in the event of a national crisis to prevent terrorists and other enemies of the country from using them.
The D.C. public school system is in the midst of implementing one of the largest tracking systems, a five-year, $6 million endeavor. Over the past few months, some 650 buses have been equipped with GPS locators. By this fall, the 4,000 special-needs children who ride those buses will be issued high-tech ID cards that will log when they get on and off the bus. Parents will be given secret codes that will enable them to use the Internet to track their children.
Parents of D.C. public school students have complained for years about problems with buses that were running late or just didn't show up, prompting a federal court to appoint an independent transportation administrator. Some parents expressed mixed feelings about the new program.
"I like that the system lets you watch them, because you never know what's going on on the bus, and I want to be sure my kids are safe," said Deneen Pryor, mother of three children, ages 5, 7 and 10, who ride D.C. Public School buses. But, she added, "I worry about criminals getting the information. I don't want anybody watching them that's not supposed to be watching them."
