Word: wirelesses
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LONGTIME PROFESSORS AT UNIVERSITIES around the U.S. have noticed that Gen M kids arrive on campus with a different set of cognitive skills and habits than past generations. In lecture halls with wireless Internet access--now more than 40% of college classrooms, according to the Campus Computing Project--the compulsion to multitask can get out of hand. "People are going to lectures by some of the greatest minds, and they are doing their mail," says Sherry Turkle, professor of the social studies of science and technology at M.I.T. In her class, says Turkle, "I tell them this...
Clark's allies in Congress drafted a bill to ban the sale of wireless-phone records, but it stalled in the Senate last week. In the meantime, spy outfits pose as subscribers to obtain records, then sell them to private investigators, divorce lawyers or anyone else with a credit card. Verizon Wireless and other carriers shut down one notorious data broker, Locatecell.com "There are thousands of companies doing this," says Robert Douglas, a security consultant and former private investigator. He notes that there are about 60,000 licensed private investigators in the U.S. "Unfortunately, anyone worth his salt knows...
Before widespread cell-phone use, lawmakers tried to address privacy with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. But it appears the law never envisioned the booming software industry that grew out of the demand for wireless-phone data. Most mobile phones are powerful tracking devices, with global-positioning systems (GPS) inside. Companies like Xora combine GPS data with information about users to create practical applications. One similar technology allows rental-car companies to track their cars with GPS. California imposed restrictions on the practice last year after a company fined a customer $3,000 for crossing into Nevada, violating the rental...
...companies selling those services insist that they care about privacy. AirSage, for example, gets data from wireless carriers to monitor drivers' cell-phone signals and map them over road grids. That lets it see exactly where gridlock is forming and quickly alert drivers to delays and alternative routes. The data it gets from carriers are aggregated from many users and scrambled, so no one can track an individual phone. "No official can use [the data] to give someone a speeding ticket," says Cy Smith, CEO of AirSage...
...protest. "These programs start out with the best intentions, but they expand," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Program at the A.C.L.U. Some responsibility, of course, rests with the individual. Since his data were revealed, Clark took his mobile number off his business cards. Wireless carriers also recommend that customers avoid giving out their mobile numbers online. But Clark insists that the law should change to protect our privacy, no matter how much technology allows us to connect. "One thing we value in this country," he says, "is the freedom to be left alone...