|
TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 4, 2001, VOL.157 NO.22
Somebody's Watching Me
My inner stalker loves GPS. My inner Shaggy's a little paranoid. Maybe those satellites should stick to tracking missiles
By MAUREEN TKACIK
A few years ago I didn't turn in my keys to the company car at the end of the week, and I and one very dreamy grad student hijacked it to New York. A few weeks ago I spent the whole night at the office, most of it surfing the Internet, some of it sleeping under my cubicle, a very small chunk of it reporting this story. A few times in high school I told my mom I was going to the movies when, in fact, I was going to very large keg parties that were customarily very lacking in adult supervision. And in a few days I am flying to Italy for a weekend, which is something else I didn't want my mom to know because she'd think I was being sooooo impractical. Which I am.
I'm not telling you all this because I'm compulsively confessional, which I also am, being female and American and Oprah-watching, but that's another story. I'm telling you this to give you some examples of the sins of omission I have committed that, in a year or so, I will no longer be able to commit (or omit) because my mobile phone, by law, will give me away. A teensy chip in a tiny chipset somewhere in the inner workings of my cell-phone handset will alert some 27 satellites, known as the global positioning system (originally launched by and for the U.S. military to keep track of missiles and stuff), of my whereabouts. Enough of those satellites will beam back my location to my carrier that it will have a pretty good idea (within a dozen or so meters) where I am and it will, depending upon my preferences, be empowered to pass that information on to my employers, my buds, my loved ones.
This makes me paranoid. This I have in common with Shaggy. For those of you who might have missed it, Shaggy is the quadruple-platinum-selling Ricky Martin of reggae. He is also a technological prophet, as those who have seen the music video to his obscenely catchy single, It Wasn't Me, would know. The song is about a wannabe playa whose lady catches him, ahem, hangin' with the girl next door. Its name comes from the oaf's absurd, shameless alibi, and to hear the lyrics, you'd think this lady was just another Oprah-watching female American victim. But on screen, she's craftier than Lara Croft. She spies on her beau, narrow-eyed, everywhere he goes, using a little handheld device that looks suspiciously like the latest Nokia handset. He can't hide. He definitely can't escape. Big Sistah is watching. And Big Sistah's got a GPS receiver.
It's an empowering concept, sure. But it's also a little, uh, freaky. Remember, I think to myself, that guy in 10th grade? With the sloppy long hair and regulation Oxford and those very, very piercing eyes? Remember his schedule, how you nervously ambled into the front office and flipped through the binder and memorized it so you could secretly coordinate that vital hall time? Remember wondering where he drove in that beat-up Volkswagen after soccer practice? Before he went home to West Springfield, zip code 22310? Technology changes, but not people. I didn't have a cell phone then; neither did Kevin; neither did anyone. But what if ...
But back to reality.
The reality, in 2001, is that my high-school freshman sister has a cell phone and that I occasionally plug Kevin's name into a Google search field. And that cell phone carriers in the U.S. are scrambling to meet the fall deadline to start rolling out location-pinpointing services that, by law, will have to be reliable enough to track all their cell-phone subscribers at least 66% of the time. The only people who will have die-hard access to this information are the folks who answer emergency calls to 911. They're the folks who lobbied for the GPS regulation, known as E-911, in the first place because they were getting countless mobile cries for help that they couldn't track down. But others can pinpoint you, too, though they'll need to pay a fee and have some kind of permission.
I may be paranoid, but the reality also is, I will give them all permission. Gladly. I'll let my boyfriend program his phone to ring whenever we're in the same part of town. I'll let my parents and my "buddy list" follow my tracks. I'll even let Starbucks in on my whereabouts if it means the occasional m-commerce cappuccino coupon for the disclosure. Heck, this is useful stuff, this location-pinpointing technology. A GPS-aided map could have saved me hours in that company car I drove so cluelessly around town when I was using it for work (before I hijacked it). GPS is already helping thousands of Japanese keep track of elderly parents, wayward toddlers and straying pets. Next year-who knows?—it could help an awkward, well-meaning member of Generation Y more satisfactorily establish whether that brooding soccer-playing kid really is her soul mate.
Freaky.
Related Sites
GPS World
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by Time Inc.
More Living Stories
Sony's Cool Thing
Some products respond to consumers' needs; others, like Sony's airboard, seek to create them
Fjording Ahead
Overnight, the sleepy Norwegian outpost of Modalen became wired
Simplifying (?) Our Lives
Talk to your thermostat, surf from the toilet, phone your fridge. And while you're at it, could you fix me a sandwich?
Homing In on a Wireless Future
After a high-tech revamp, this Victorian-style former farmhouse is jam-packed with technology
This New Home
What's it like living in a wired home? One Singapore couple is finding that gadgets are great but it's still nice to feel the fruit
Don't Wire, Be Happy
If your phone could talk to your refrigerator, would your life improve? Two tech wizards discuss the merits of souping up
Somebody's Watching Me
My inner stalker loves GPS. My inner Shaggy's a little paranoid. Maybe those satellites should stick to tracking missiles
Raising Flags on the High-Tech Highway
Marso's invisible "killer" is not a person, but a satellite that seeks and destroys mobile phone users with a zap from outer space
Internet 'Hotels' See Busy Times Ahead
London II bears little resemblance to its more well-known cousins
|
advertisement
|
|
Libraries
Full Contents: all of the stories in one simple list
Multimedia:  the home of our video, audio and interactive features
Video: CNN circles the globe for how technology is changing our lives
Toolbox: software you may need for this site
|
|
|
Subscribe to TIME
Magazine
Stories from this week's issue
Ethics
Big Brother is watching the Net. Do you care?
Living
Talk to your thermostat, surf from the toilet, phone your fridge
Entertainment
Music mixing as easy as logging on to a website and typing on a keyboard
|
|
Specials
CNN's hour-long special program on Our Interactive World, hosted by Michael Holmes and Tumi Makgabo, featuring luminaries from the world of information technology
Brian Bennett, reporter for TIME magazine, interviews MTV Asia's LiLi, a virtual veejay
Lili on her life and work: chat transcript from May 31, 2001
|
|
|
U.S. | Asia | Europe | Current Issue
U.S. | Asia | Europe | Sci-Tech
[an error occurred while processing this directive] | You are