Imagine living in a world where the government knows every detail about your life. When you leave for work, what your favorite place to eat at, different shops you go to, and much more. By tracking GPS data from your cell phone, the government could track every move you make whenever you have your cell phone on you. The government says it has only been using this feature to track suspects and criminals, however who is to say that they haven't been using this on innocent civilians to gather data us or someone else hacking the system and using it.
Using this technology on criminals however has been a great help for the government. By tracking their location, police and federal officers can find out where drug deals are taking place and can bring down the dealers when it's happening. This has significantly helped officials and is making cities safer. The problem is that there is no privacy rights for suspects that the police are chasing. Some of these suspects may not be a convicted felon and police might not have any leads but are hoping to get some from the tracking data. However, if the suspects are innocent, the police and federal officials would be completely violating their privacy rights.
Furthermore, hackers could get into the systems and start using it to find where people are located. This is very dangerous because terrorists could use the information to plot an attack politicians and cause havoc to our country. Although this technology is already being used, I believe it must be stopped immediately because of the significant consequences of using it. It may have helped us on several occasions, but the good does not outweigh evil in this situation.
I completely agree that the use of tracking technology has negative consequences for the people being watched. Though this has been instrumental in collecting information on criminals, doing so without a warrant completely disregards their right to privacy.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it's not just the police following citizens. Have you ever signed on to Facebook on your laptop and had an ad pop up for something you just searched on your phone appear? I have, and upon doing research found that google and many other companies are tracking everything we do on our devices as a means to apply advertising that they know we have some sort of connection to. This concerns me more than the police using a gps tracker on me. The internet has provided information for anything and everything you can think of, but getting that information subjects everyone to being seen as a grand mathematical equation, rather than an individual.
I disagree that the negative affects of tracking technology outweigh the positive affects. I think it is great that the government uses technology to help find and catch criminals. Although it does arguably violate our rights of privacy, they do not do things like randomly monitoring the average person's text messages, or listening to their calls. They do these things for suspects of criminal activity. This can save a life, or save many lives. Yes, the government may see certain things on the phone. However, they do not use this information for their own personal use or any other type of use. Also, they are able to not only prevent criminal activity, but also convict criminals of a certain crime through these techniques. Furthermore, their are other positive affects involving technology tracking. When someone is using their navigation system on their cell phone, this tracking technology contributes to helping them go to their destination. In terms of marketing, if someone were to google something specifically, this technology can effect the results, giving you specific places around your area. The only other downside is the fact that this technology can be hacked and accessed to unauthorized users. This can create major problems. I dont believe their are any direct effects on anyone who is being observed through this tracking technology. Yes, the government may see certain things, but they do not care nor post these things unless it has some type of harm to the country.
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