Look Behind You: Human Tracking Devices a Big Problem, Texas A&M Experts Say

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Feb. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- You may not be so paranoid after all - someone really may be tracking your every move.
Numerous high-tech surveillance technologies, led by geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS) and location-based services (LBS) are now available to monitor a person wherever he or she goes, and the increasing use of such technologies in our daily lives can raise serious legal questions about privacy, say two Texas A&M University experts who have conducted years of research into the issue.
The bottom line: Human tracking will probably get worse in years to come.
"The accelerated use of such global positioning equipment and other technologies means that everybody and everything on Earth is traceable," believes Dan Sui, professor of geography.
"These types of equipment are pervasive. We know that there have been massive amounts of identity theft in recent years, but somewhere we have ignored the locational dimension of a person's identity."
"A basic question is: Do you have a right to know if someone is tracking you?"
Sui says many cell phones now come equipped with locational capabilities, and these are particularly useful if a person needs help in an emergency. But for an extra fee, some companies will let you track someone else.
"Consent is supposed to be part of the deal - you have to agree to be tracked," he says. "But that doesn't mean everyone will always try to get consent. There's always someone who doesn't want to play by the rules and will track someone without his or her permission."
Additionally, location-based services exist to make a profit, meaning sometimes their sincerity in trying to acquire consent may be questionable, Sui adds.
One new segment of such tracking devices - radio frequency identification, or RFID - is especially frightening, Sui says, because it involves implanting a tracking device into the body.
"Once you have this chip in you, you are easily tracked wherever you go," he adds. "Some rental car agencies have suggested using this to monitor speed and track down drivers and other uses of a car. It's a scary scenario if you think about it."
Sui says that one big problem is that the technology behind such devices is increasing far faster than legal answers regarding the use of them.
"The legal system is always lagging behind technology because very often such high-tech devices can be developed quickly," he says.
"A very basic question is, who has the right to track who and for what purpose? Some of the legal answers have yet to be determined."
In 1999 Texas House Bill 1001 was passed prohibiting the "installation of an electronic or mechanical tracking device on a motor vehicle owned or leased by another person." Exceptions can be a peace officer who installed the device in the course of a criminal investigation or a private investigator who has written consent to install the device by the vehicle's owner.
Sui says some locational equipment can be very beneficial, such as those that track Alzheimer's patients who may wander away from a home or care facility or devices that are attached to monitor criminals and their movements. "These are like an electronic leash - they can serve a very useful purpose," he says.
Kai Elgethun, another Texas A&M researcher who has studied the problem, notes that "with informed consent from individuals wearing GPS devices, the technology is ethical and invaluable for improving our knowledge about people's whereabouts in relation to harmful pollution and other health hazards."
"Our ability to correctly estimate risk of exposure improves with every new study we conduct using tracking devices," adds Elgethun, who has recently tracked farm worker children with GPS to assess pesticide exposure.
But as technology improves, the problem will become more common, Sui says.
"More and more, the use of tracking devices is becoming a serious privacy issue," he believes. "If someone really wants to stalk someone and acquire these devices, what's to stop him or her from doing it? It's becoming a more rampant problem every year, and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse."
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CONTACTS: Dan Sui, 979-845-7154, dsui@vprmail.tamu.edu
Kai Elgethun, 979-458-3030, elgethun@neo.tamu.edu
Keith Randall, Texas A&M Communications, 979-845-4644, kr@univrel.tamu.edu
Media Contact: Keith Randall, 979-845-4644, kr@univrel.tamu.edu