Experimental Blog # 179

Quotations and comments from "You Are Here" - From the Compass to GPS, the History and Future of How We Find Ourselves by Hiawatha Bray and "Dragnet Nation" - A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance by Julia Angwin

From "You Are Here":
"As I read the street map on my smartphone, the map also read me, broadcasting my movements < > Its server computers timed my footsteps, noted my detours < > A permanent record of our movements over days, months and years, these maps can reveal the most salient details of our lives - political and religious beliefs, suspicious friendships, bad habits."

" ...every cell phone is a little homing beacon that gives the phone company a rough idea of the phone's location. < > it was the decision to build GPS into hundreds of millions of commonplace phones that transformed the technology from a costly curiosity to an everyday necessity < > anybody could own a cheap device that would tell her exactly where she was and exactly how to get where she wanted to go."
" .. GPS was born of the US military's Cold War quest to deliver devastating firepower to exactly the right spot, anywhere on earth."

"Skyhook works where GPS can't - in urban canyons or inside thick concrete walls < > Skyhook markets a hybrid service that combines GPS and Wi-Fi data, offering whichever will give the most accurate result at a given moment."
 Our location by latitude, longitude, and altitude is identified by the Internet protocol{IP} addresses of our internet connected devices, sometimes "static" and other times "dynamic".

"For centuries people have been able to disappear. < > the twentieth century made it nearly impossible to live the anonymous life."
"Thanks to our mastery of location, we may never be truly invisible again."

From "Dragnet Nation":
"Dragnets that scoop up information indiscriminately about everyone in their path used to be rare: < > But technology has enabled a new era of supercharged dragnets that can gather vast amounts of personal data with little human effort."
"The rise of indiscriminate tracking is powered by the same forces that have brought us the technology we love so much - powerful computing on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones."
"The combination of massive computing power, smaller and smaller devices, and cheap storage has enabled a huge increase in indiscriminate tracking of personal data."