Date: Tue, 17 May 94 8:57:58 PDT
From: RISKS Forum <risks@csl.sri.com>
Subject: RISKS DIGEST 16.07

RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest  Tuesday 17 May 1994  Volume 16 : Issue 07

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Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 15:31:31 -0700
From: Phil Agre <pagre@ucsd.edu>
Subject: tracking

  "There is something a little eerie about picking up a car phone and having
  a voice describe your location to within a few feet on a pleasant if
  unremarkable street of colonial and tudor-style houses."

That's a quote from a second article in the New York Times promoting the Avis
project to track the company's rental cars through GPS hardware and wireless
communications.  The full reference is:

  Peter Marks, For a few lucky motorists, guidance by satellite, New York
  Times, 2 April 1994, pages 1, 16.

The reporter apparently went for a ride with the system, and was enthralled.
No doubt it was a fascinating experience.  This article does at least mention
privacy concerns, in a parenthetical note, as follows:

  "On the Nynex computer screens, the cars show up as small dots moving along
  the roads on the computer maps.  Nynex officials say, however, that for
  the sake of privacy, a car's position will only show up on a screen for the
  duration of a driver's call to the Project Northstar number."

Note that "privacy" only extends to what's presented on the operator's screen.
Nothing is said about the more fundamental issue, what records are stored in
the computer.

Phil Agre, UCSD

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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 16.07
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