GPS Tracking With Hardware
What is GPS?
GPS is an acronym for Global Positioning System. GPS technology was originally developed by the United States military. The GPS system works by microwaves emitted by satellites far above earth. These signals are transmitted to a GPS receiver on earth. The information is converted to location and even traveling speed.
GPS technology has been available for private use for over 20 years, but the past decade has shown a rapid increase in GPS technology for the average user. One group that has latched on to GPS technology is the cell phone industry. The federal government wanted to make it easy for emergency responders to know where a cell phone caller was located. While 911 calls from landline phones are attached to an address, this would obviously not work for cell phones.
Cell phone companies, in their desire to become compliant with new federal regulations, determined that the easiest way to make their phones locations known was to make the cell phone itself traceable. Cell phones, whether the most basic model or the most extravagant, can now be tracked by GPS. This is a valuable service for emergency personnel, but it opened a door to privacy concerns for the everyday consumer.
How GPS Technology Works On Cell Phones?
While any phone can send its GPS identified location to a 911 center, this information cannot be picked up by others. However, once the technology was developed, it was only a matter of time before it was expanded. Many cell phone providers advertise location tracking as a service that they provide. While there are many privacy concerns brought up by this technology, and you can read more about them at http://privacyalerts.org/phone-tracking.html, there are a variety of legitimate reasons that someone may want to trace another’s location.
Parents of teenager drivers often feel safer by knowing that they can look at a glance and know where their child is. Many companies that have employees that spend hours each day out of the office use GPS tracking technology to make sure that their employees are working on company time. These are considered legitimate uses of GPS tracking technology.
Like countless advancements in technology before, it didn’t take long for GPS tracking to develop in a way unforeseen by its developers. It seems that the ability to know every move that someone makes is too much to resist for some people. Spouses and stalkers and anyone else that has a little knowledge about technology can install GPS tracking hardware to your phone and know exactly where you are, or where your phone is anyway.
If the idea of having someone know your every mood is not unsettling enough, you should also realize that unlike tracking spyware that may be installed on a cell phone, GPS tracking hardware works whether the telephone is turned on or off. The benefit of GPS hardware is that it is hardware, and as such, it is visible on your phone if you know what you are looking for. If you think that there may be a GPS trace on you, check your phone over carefully, particularly under the battery. If you do not find anything, contact your cell phone carrier and ask if your phone has been unlocked for GPS use. If so, someone with access to your account has unlocked your phone. If you cannot find GPS hardware on your phone, and it is not unlocked (this is separate from being unlocked for 911 service), you are probably safe from GPS tracking. To keep up to date on the latest GPS tracking news, check out http://privacyalerts.org/phone-tracking.html.
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Mary is a bookworm that loves to write about technology and ethical issues.
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