My wife works in sales for a huge multinational company. They are forcing everybody to use company provided cell phones instead of expensing their own. There are a bunch of rumors floating around and people are worried that their movements can be tracked since cell phones these days have some GPS capabilities. Technologically, the company obviously has a huge IT budget as they regularly release custom applications built specifically for PocketPC's and/or laptops. Basically, if it was technically possible, the company has the resources to do it. Logic tells me that the GPS is simply a basic receiver used to identify location only on the device itself that then can be transmitted only if you are on a phone call to say 911. It seems far fetched that a company can passively track movement of all their cell phones much less store such a database on over 6000 employees. Thoughts?
I haven't looked into it to much, but with Sprint, I can track my family if I pay $9.99 per month. As I understand it, I would be able to go on the Internet (and I assume my phone), and find their location and see a Mapquest type of representation of where they are.
I recently read that you can be tracked by your cell phone as long as it is on. You don't have to be making or receiving a call. I don't think they can pinpoint your location to within a few feet but then can get close.
On my cell phone I have the option of turning the gps on or off...On allows the network to detect my position and off allows only 911 to view my location...Nobody is supposed to be able to view your location without your expressed permission, thus if the company is doing this without notifying its employees there can be a lawsuit filed against it...If there are gps capabilities, they should be able to turn them off, but I'm no expert. What happened to the good ole days when the best anybody could do was triangulate your positions? lol
My friends comapny wanted to switch to Nextel so that they can track them. This will all happen in the near future. Get ready.
I stumbled across that on the Sprint web site the other day while looking at the availble options for my phone.
I just found it. They call it mobile locator. They are marketing it specifically to track employees. That is really really creepy. I don't like that one bit. Theoretically, you can turn off the GPS feature but I wouldn't be surprised if her company modifies the phone so the GPS cannot be turned off. That would be an easy thing to do particularly if they arranged for Srpint to do it themselves given the size of the contract involved.
Maybe this will make people less reliant on their cell phones. You know, we functioned OK before they were invented. I know that's hard to believe.
I didn't say anything about cars or computers. I really don't think cutting down on our useless cellphone babbling is going to throw us back into the stone ages.
Unfortunately she is in sales and is required to spend 99% of her day in the field. She doesn't even have a desk or an office. A cell phone is pretty much mandetory. The crappy part is if you ever have a personal errand to run during the day (presumabely because you were ahead of schedule and got all your work done), then you can't because some buzzer goes off in the central office the second she drives out of her designated sales territory. Yea, there are ways around it but its just another example of how every facet of our lives is trackable. Slippery Slope. What's next?
The article is somewhat dated, but yes. http://news.com.com/Big+boss+is+watching/2100-1036_3-5379953.html
