Big Brother in your pocket

A few years back, wireless companies were trumpeting the potential of "location-aware" technology that could target content to consumers based on exactly where they were. Stores would send coupon specials to the cell phones of passersby and so on.

Yes, I know that it sounds hideously annoying; probably one reason it hasn't happened. Location-aware cell phones, however, are a reality now. And there are new services that take advantage of them -- but the killer app so far has been personal surveillance, not hyper-commercialism.

The New York Times looks at early adopters and the broader implications of the technology:

Driven by worries about safety, the need for accountability, and perhaps a certain "I Spy" impulse, families and employers are adopting surveillance technology once used mostly to track soldiers and prisoners. New electronic services with names like uLocate and Wherify Wireless make a very personal piece of information for cellphone users--physical location--harder to mask.

But privacy advocates say the lack of legal clarity about who can gain access to location information poses a serious risk. And some users say the technology threatens an everyday autonomy that is largely taken for granted. The devices, they say, promote the scrutiny of small decisions--where to have lunch, when to take a break, how fast to drive--rather than general accountability. ...

Critics of the new technology do not dispute its usefulness, but worry that it will become ubiquitous before legal guidelines are established.