Government Proposes Mobile Tracking Technology
Historical evidence suggests that prepaid cell phones are widely used for illegal purposes. The Times Square bomber in recent news had a prepaid cell phone, as do many drug dealers. The logic? Prepaid cell phones are hard to trace, especially if they are registered under a fake identity.
To combat this issue two United States Senators have drafted a proposal for legislation that would force people to show valid ID when puchasing a prepaid cell phone. Also, the phone companies would have to keep a record of the owner of each prepaid cell phone sold. Phone companies have mobile tracking technologies, so a cell phone could be tracked and a crisis averted if the police sensed someone was involved in suspicious activity.
There’s some debate in the Washington Post article about this bill as to whether or not this kind of legislation is an invasion of privacy. Although I agree that there’s a correlation between crime and prepaid mobile phone use, passing a law that gives the government the license to track a personal cell phone bothers me. It’s reminiscent of the Patriot Act and other laws that legalize spying. But phone tracking is becoming widespread. Even without this law, would this type of technology be available in the near future in any case? For instance, here at Phone Halo, we provide devices so that you can track your own valuables. But we’re here to prevent loss, not to invade your privacy.
-Gabrielle