M.G. Michael

The Emerging Ethics of Humancentric GPS Tracking and Monitoring

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is increasingly being adopted by private and public enterprise to track and monitor humans for location-based services (LBS). Some of these applications include personal locators for children, the elderly or those suffering from Alzheimers or memory loss, and the monitoring of parolees for law enforcement, security or personal protection purposes. The continual miniaturization of the GPS chipset means that receivers can take the form of wristwatches, mini mobiles and bracelets, with the ability to pinpoint the longitude and latitude of a subject 24/7/365. This paper employs usability context analyses to draw out the emerging ethical concerns facing current humancentric GPS applications. The outcome of the study is the classification of current state GPS applications into the contexts of control, convenience, and care; and a preliminary ethical framework for considering the viability of GPS location-based services emphasizing privacy, accuracy, property and accessibility.

A research note on ethics in the emerging age of überveillance

Advanced location-based services (A-LBS) for humancentric tracking and monitoring are now emerging as operators and service providers begin to leverage their existing infrastructure and invest in new technologies, toward increasingly innovative location application solutions. We can now point to humancentric tracking and monitoring services where the person (i.e. subject) has become an active node in the network. For example, in health applications through the use of embedded technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) or in campus applications through the use of electronic monitoring techniques in the form of global positioning systems (GPS). These technologies, for the greater part, have been introduced into society at large, without the commensurate assessment of what they will mean in terms of socio-ethical implications. Of particular concern is the potential for these innovative solutions to be applied in government-to-citizen mandated services, increasing the ability of the state to collect targeted data and conduct covert surveillance on any given individual, described herein as uberveillance. This paper aims to define, describe, and interpret the current socio-ethical landscape of advanced location-based services for humans in order to promote discourse among researchers and practitioners to better direct telecommunications policy.

Toward a State of Überveillance [Special Section Introduction]

Uberveillance is an emerging concept, and neither its application nor its power have yet fully arrived [38]. For some time, Roger Clarkes [12, p. 498] 1988 dataveillance concept has been prevalent: the “systematic use of personal data systems in the investigation or monitoring of the actions of one or more persons.”

Location-based intelligence - modeling behavior in humans using GPS

This paper introduces the notion of location-based intelligence by tracking the spatial properties and behavior of a single civilian participant over a two-week study period using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and displaying them on a geographic information system (GIS). The paper clearly shows the power of combining speed (S), distance (D), time (T) and elevation (E) data with the exact longitude and latitude position of the user. The issues drawn from the observation and the civilians personal diary are useful in understanding the social implications of tracking and monitoring objects and subjects using GPS. The findings show that while GPS has been used in some very innovative ways, there are a plethora of ethical dilemmas associated with its use on civilians, even if they are requesting a given service and paying for its utilization. From the information recorded during the field observation, a number of inherent technical limitations in GPS were identified which add to the complexity of such related areas as law and commerce. In conclusion, while the benefits of GPS for specific applications is apparent, safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that information gathered by the GPS is not misused or abused. One can envisage that if the wrong hands obtain location information records for individual subscribers that the potential exposure and risk might be even greater than that of stolen credit cards.

Innovative Automatic Identification and Location-Based Services: From Bar Codes to Chip Implants

Automatic identification has evolved to use mechanisms that can identify an object without direct human intervention. Such devices are the bar code, magnetic-stripe, integrated circuit, and biometric and radio-frequency indentification. Innovative Automatic Identification & Location-Based Services: From Bar Codes to Chip Implants emphasizes the convergence and trajectory of automatic identification and location-based services toward chip implants and real-time positioning capabilities. Recording the history of automatic identification, this book also discusses the social, cultural, and ethical implications of the technological possibilities with respect to national security initiatives.

The social and behavioural implications of location-based services

The social and behavioural implications of location-based services (LBS) are only now beginning to come to light in advanced markets where the services have been adopted by just a little over half ...

Using a social informatics framework to study the effects of location-based social networking on relationships between people: A review of literature

This paper is predominantly a review of literature on the emerging mobile application area known as location-based social networking. The study applies the social informatics framework to the exploratory question of what effect location based social networking may have on relationships between people. The classification model used in the paper relates previous research on location based services and online social networking together. Specifically the wider study is concerned with literature which identifies the impact of technology on trust with respect to friendship. This paper attempts to draw out the motivations behind using location based social networking applications and the implications this may have on individual privacy and more broadly ones social life. It relies heavily on the domain of social informatics with a view to setting a theoretical underpinning to the shaping between context and information and communication technology design.

Social Implications of Technology: The Past, the Present, and the Future

The social implications of a wide variety of technologies are the subject matter of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). This paper reviews the SSITs contributions since the Societys founding in 1982, and surveys the outlook for certain key technologies that may have significant social impacts in the future. Military and security technologies, always of significant interest to SSIT, may become more autonomous with less human intervention, and this may have both good and bad consequences. We examine some current trends such as mobile, wearable, and pervasive computing, and find both dangers and opportunities in these trends. We foresee major social implications in the increasing variety and sophistication of implant technologies, leading to cyborgs and human-machine hybrids. The possibility that the human mind may be simulated in and transferred to hardware may lead to a transhumanist future in which humanity redesigns itself: technology would become society.

Exploring the Social Implications of Location Based Social Networking: An Inquiry into the Perceived Positive and Negative Impacts of Using LBSN between Friends

Location based social networking (LBSN) applications are part of a new suite of emerging social networking tools that run on the Web 2.0 platform. LBSN is the convergence between location based services (LBS) and online social networking (OSN). LBSN applications offer users the ability to look up the location of another “friend” remotely using a smart phone, desktop or other device, anytime and anywhere. Users invite their friends to participate in LBSN and there is a process of consent that follows. Friends have the ability to alter their privacy settings to allow their location to be monitored by another at differing levels of accuracy (e.g. suburb, pinpoint at the street address level, or manual location entry). This paper explores the impact of LBSN upon society, especially upon trust between friends. The study used focus groups to collect data, and a qualitative approach towards analysis. The paper concludes that while there are a great many positive uses of LBSN, there are some significant problems with current applications, and that better design is required to ensure that these technologies are not exploited against a user to commit harm.

National Security: The Social Implications of the Politics of Transparency

This special issue of Prometheus is dedicated to the theme of the Social Implications of National Security Measures on Citizens and Business. National security measures can be defined as those technical and nontechnical measures that have been initiated as a means to curb breaches in national security, irrespective of whether these might occur by nationals or aliens in or from outside the sovereign state. National security includes such government priorities as maintaining border control, safeguarding against pandemic outbreaks, preventing acts of terror, and even discovering and eliminating identification fraud. Governments worldwide are beginning to implement information and communication security techniques as a way of protecting and enhancing their national security. These techniques take the form of citizen identification card schemes using smart cards, behavioural tracking for crowd control using closed-circuit television (CCTV), electronic tagging for mass transit using radio-frequency identification (RFID), e-passports for travel using biometrics, and 24x7 tracking of suspected terrorists using global positioning systems (GPS). The electorate is informed that these homeland security techniques are in actual fact deployed to assist government in the protection of its citizenry and infrastructure. The introduction of these widespread measures, however, is occurring at a rapid pace without equivalent deliberation over the potential impacts in the longer term on both citizens and business.