GPS and Cuff Links

Unbeknownst to the general population, GPS technology is steadily and quietly growing all around us. Once strictly limited to military and marine use, it is rapidly finding its way onto every small plane and boat, luxury car, even handheld units for hikers and bikers. Large trucking companies have them on their entire fleet, tracking them wherever they are on the continent, and farmers use them to pinpoint exactly where to navigate their heavy equipment. Soon, virtually every vehicle of any size and significance will have a GPS unit built into the instruments.

The biggest potential use is of course automobiles. The current discussions in California about mandating GPS in private automobiles (see “Taxing by the Mile”) has naturally refueled the privacy issue again. In many ways it seems silly and naive for people to complain about a GPS device recording where they travel in their car. After all, they’re out in public, traveling on city streets or public highways, and they’re not exactly invisible. Anyone could legally follow them and keep notes on their whereabouts. They are already being tracked to some extent if they use a credit card to buy gas, or a radio transponder to auto-pay at toll gates.

In spite of these recurring protests by privacy advocates, the fact is that we as a nation are slowly getting used to the idea that information about us is being stored somewhere, whether it’s the phone company, the IRS, Social Security, Dept. of Motor Vehicles, U.S. Customs, the FBI, Credit Agencies, wherever. Pretty much everything we do is already recorded somewhere, including where we buy gas, what restaurants we frequent, and what we buy at Radio Shack and Macy’s and the grocery store. As the use of debit cards grows in leaps and bounds, so does the mass of data on what is bought with them and by whom.

Many of you have no doubt seen the commercial for Onstar that demonstrates how their system knows exactly where your car is and can send a tow truck or even unlock your doors because it can connect to your car’s computer via satellite. The idea of your car being tracked is already here folks. It is not a hypothetical futuristic new thing. It’s here today and I for one, am convinced that it will continue to spread and grow and eventually become a must-have feature on every car. It may take a couple of car generations for the majority of cars to have them built-in, but it will happen.

The benefits of never getting lost again, or being able to get directions to a new store or someone's house will drive acceptance of the technology. As long as it's not abused, people will get used to the technology and will learn to rely on it if their car ever breaks down or gets stolen. Whether we like it or not, as technology permeates every aspect of our lives, there will be few things that go unnoticed by one electronic system or another.

Twenty years ago, Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the MIT Media Lab, liked to comment in his speeches that before long, “You’ll find that your left cuff link will be communicating with your right cuff link via satellite.”

We are closer than you might think to that reality.
I say, bring it on.