Mobile phone tracking has become one of the hottest new mobile applications. Wireless internet allows your cell phone to find the nearest restaurant, police station or friend. Several services now allow users to track the location of mobile phones. On one hand, this technology brings up new interesting services that can simplify everyone's life. In London for example a taxi company called Zingo cab combines GPS and location-based technology. Zingo locates the position of both taxi and passenger by bringing together mobile phone operators' location technology on one side and global positioning systems (GPS) already used in thousands of licensed London taxis on the other side. With the information gathered in this way the caller can be connected to the nearest taxi driver with the minimum delay. Passengers initially call a national-rate number from their mobile to be connected automatically to Zingo's system, which identifies the caller's location using their mobile operator's location technology. People like the fact that they don't have to stand in the street to hail a taxi. It's safer, easier and often faster. An other interesting application using mobile tracking systems is to locate witnesses. The main difficulty of the police is often to find witnesses to crimes. Studies have shown there's a direct relationship between the number of people who witness something and the number who step forward to help - the higher the number of people the less the chance that someone will offer to help. One explanation suggested for this is that if there are a lot of people around then we tend to think that someone else is already going to help. So now we can take advantage of the current state of cell phone technology to help the police. That way if something happens, an accident, carjacking, bank robbery, etc... a system could track down all of the cell phones that were in use at the time near the area concerned so the police could call those numbers to see if anyone saw anything of any use. It would greatly increase the odds of finding witnesses. On the other hand, there are question marks over the security of the data provided to users. With new services like ChildLocate, you can locate your child's mobile phone anywhere in the UK in seconds from a secure web site or by sending a text message from your own mobile phone. Many of the service's new customers will undoubtedly have been persuaded to sign up because of the Soham murder trial in England. A vital piece of prosecution evidence was provided by mobile phone records that pinpointed the location of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman outside the home of murderer Ian Huntley. For a switched-on mobile phone, whose owner has given permission, the networks will provide location data with up-to-the-minute accuracy - for a certain price. You will be able to see a circle of accuracy within which the network believes the phone to be located. As a parent, I would welcome this service - but from the viewpoint of keeping my children safe, not checking up on them. And then, only with the child's agreement. As an adult user, I would not want to be tracked either personally or through my employer - it reminds me too much of Big Brother. For an employer to want to use it shows massive distrust of the employees, in my opinion, and I wouldn't want to work for a company with this mindset. The personal security argument also doesn't hold water for me. Knowing where someone's mobile is doesn't tell you where they themselves are or that they are safe. It may give a false sense of security if a child is abducted and their mobile left in a place the parent considers to be safe (school, park etc). New mobile technology will certainly simplify everyone’s life but we’ll have to set up strict rules to minimise abuses. And that because of one thing; privacy will become THE key issue with these new technologies.
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