GPS Equipped Census Worker Murdered, Is It GPS Tracking Related?

In September a brutal murder occurred that could be related to the government ‘s  stance on marking every residential dwelling in America with a GPS tracking device for the upcoming 2010 census.  [A description of how the body was found is to follow.  It is a little shocking so please only read on if you are interested, otherwise skip to the next paragraph.] The part-time, temporary census worker was found hanging from a tree in a rural Kentucky cemetery.   The body, identified as the remains of a 51 year old cancer survivor Bill Sparkman, was stripped naked by the murder(s) and his hands and feet were bound with duct tape.  His eyes were also duct tapped and his mouth was gagged with something resembling red rag according to the person that reported finding the body.

According to coroner reports, the word “fed” was written on the deceased’s chest.  His census bureau credentials were also taped to his forehead and shoulder area.  These two clues clearly indicate that the murder(s) were either enraged to their despicable deed because he was working with the federal government or that they want the authorities to think that the murder because of his connections with the government.

But what is it about what Mr. Sparkman was doing with the government census bureau that would so fill a person with hate that they would consider murder?

From what I can tell, the deceased, Bill Sparkman, was involved in a push by the government to mark the front door of every residential dwelling in America. While many conservative conspiracy theorists are attacking the current administration over the use of ACORN to do the marking, the actual plan to do so dates back over 2.5 years to no later than July 2006, a time when the Bush administration was still in office.

The idea at the time was to send out temporary staff to gather the exact location of the front door of every residential home in America. This information would be useful to ensure that every household would be counted in the 2010 census, but I am sure that there were additional benefits that the government garner from this move. One of them would certainly be aiding them in identifying tax household that are not reporting information on their tax returns.

It is my guess that this GPS marking activity was what that sent Bill Sparkman out into the Kentucky countryside in September and would eventually lead to his death. I have no way of verifying this information and have not read any reports confirming it – it is simply my guess. If I am right, it might be the first government GPS tracking related death in American history.

My theory goes like this. The deceased was just doing his job going out and marking homes with his GPS tracking device. Part of his instruction was to be relatively extensive in his search of homes – identifying whether or not certain buildings on a property were residential in nature and if someone was living inside them. My guess is that someone took extreme offense at his presence and confronted him about his presences on their property and his use of the GPS tracking unit.

A brief exchange occurred where things got heated and the deceased was attacked. He was then killed for some reason and then his body was dumped in the cemetery as described above.

This would be very sad if true, but I think that just the idea of it warrants a closer look at the use of this GPS information by the government to see if there is any good that can come from it.

Good Government GPS Tracking

We have already discussed what good government GPS tracking implants can do in a previous post, but what about simpler GPS tracking data? Will non real time tracking data also be useful in the hands of the government? The following is a story from NPR from April of 2006 discussing the government’s planned use of GPS to mark all the residential areas in the US. It lists some interesting things that are certainly worthy of consideration.

If the player does not load you can listen or read the story here: Census Bureau Adopts GPS to Find American Homes

This is the flood map mentioned in the story that the GIS director created with the GPS data that her city had collected:

Government GPS Map Flood Threat

I had never thought of using GPS data in this way, but apparently there are a lot of smart people using this information who can see all the wonderful ways that governments can use this type of GPS to better inform their citizenry about natural disasters. Just think of all the good that would have come of this if it could be used during the wildfire season in Southern California, or in the hurricane season along the gulf coast, or when the Mississippi or one of its tributaries decides to flood. The government could reliably and efficiently notify its citizens about their impending danger, all thanks to the GPS information gathered by a government employee with a hand-held GPS tracking device.

Wouldn’t that be good?

Evil Government GPS Tracking

Then there is the bad that could be done with this type of tracking.  One conservative website [Infowars.com] already mentioned one of them in a recent article from their site.  They write:

The 2% of Americans, who have served military duty at some point in life, are very familiar with the most common use of GPS target painting. The other 98% of Americans might want to pick up a book on the subject, such as The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare …

The idea is that the government would use the GPS information to wage war against their own citizens.  While this is unlikely that they would fire missiles from planes at our homes (after all, that is a really expensive way to kill one family) it does mean that they can break down your door with some serious accuracy if ever a police state becomes the norm in America.

The government could also sell your information on the open market, a notion that we discussed when examining the bad governments can do with GPS tracking implants.  While this does seem terrible, it almost seems inevitable since the citizens have a right to all the intellectual property that the government creates.  As long as the information isn’t correlated with other information about you that the government has also compiled than that seems less evil than if they did sell the GPS information in that way.

What’s the Verdict?

Is this death GPS tracking related or not?  I certainly don’t know, but it sure seems like it could be.  I personally cannot dream of being so outraged by a census worker’s activity that I would kill them.  Smash up their GPS tracking device – yes.  Intimidate them and scare them off – yes.  Murder them – hell no.  That is just plain wrong and is just as evil as anything that you could think the government would do with your GPS information.  And that is truth you can take to the bank.

Keruve 2010 GPS Tracking Systems For Kids and Alzheimer Patients

Keruve, a Spanish GPS tracking device manufacturer, has recently announced its Keruve 2010 GPS tracking system. This system will build off of its already existent GPS tracking watch and portable GPS tracking receiver. The way the current model works is that the person who needs to be tracked wears the GPS wrist watch that is part of the system. Then, when the tracker wants to know where the trackee is, they just press a button on the receiver and they are given the person’s location to the nearest street address.

This is a relatively simple concept to those that are familiar with personal GPS tracking systems, but something that might sound revolutionary to those just becoming aware of this powerful technology.

But the new Keruve 2010 improves upon this design in several different ways. For starters, there has been improvement on the appearance of the GPS tracking watch that is part of the system. Now there are far more models to choose from including three watches for men, two for women, and a unisex model. All watches now have larger numbers for easier reading by young and old users alike.

It also now includes no less then four positioning systems to cycle through in cases where, for whatever reason, the most accurate GPS system is not available. While the most accurate is still going to be GPS bases, it also features a Keruve indoor position finder when the personal GPS tracking watch is unable to find a GPS signal, a VisionCellid location system, and a GSM network system. This is very useful because in almost any circumstance you are going to have some idea where the watch is.

They have also made some significant improvement to the GPS tracking receiver. There are now clearly labeled buttons on the touch screen, making it easier to find what you are looking for. They have expanded the display to 4.2″ and increased the font size of the displayed addresses to improve readability. A new ergonomic design rounds out the receiver improvements.

While the already existing model was a solid, though expensive, real time GPS tracking system, the improvements introduced by the Keruve 2010 should provide a better user experience in both terms of ease of use and functionality.

Keruve GPS Tracking System Marketing

Below are a few of the ways in which the Keruve tracking watch was marketed in the native Spain. The commercial below is in Spanish, but I have translated the information about the video into English using Google Translate with some minor clean up:

Presentation Keruve. Keruve as a direct locator specialist for people with Alzheimer’s disease in the first stage. With the Keruve GPS watch, a person with Alzheimer’s can continue walking as they did before, and the family with the receiver can know where the Keruve watch is whenever they want.

As you can see, people on the other side of the Atlantic run into the same problems that Americans do. We all have children that can get lost in the mix and milieu of people in our modern societies. We have older relatives whose bodies have outlived their minds and suffer from the crippling disease of dementia, with the most common manifestation being Alzheimer’s.

The next video is more of a news story and is particularly focused on the use of the Keruve GPS tracking system in Alzheimer’s patients:

Demonstration of the Keruve personal locator at the residence Santa Elena in Seville, Spain. Video provides an explanation of performance and interview with one of the inventors and the director of the association of relatives of Alzheimer patients in Seville, Spain.

Now that we have seen that this device is marketed both as a child tracking system and an Alzheimer’s tracking system let’s briefly discuss both of these applications.

Keruve GPS Tracking System For Kids

Tracking systems for kids are nothing new on GPS For Today. We have seen the Amber Alert GPS tracking system and how it tries to provide reliable information for parents on the location of their children. Unlike the Amber Alert GPS, the Keruve GPS tracking system for kids uses a watch rather than a stand alone tracking unit. This has its advantages and disadvantages.

The first advantage is that the watches are now much more natural looking than they were before. One of the biggest issues that people have with GPS tracking watches for kids is that they are often too bulky and obviously a safety device. Not so with the Keruve GPS watch. It has a sleek design that makes it look like a real watch. Though it might be too large for the wrists of the smallest children, it should work fine for teenagers and some pre-teens.

Another advantage of a watch is that they are usually on the wrist of your child. Sure, sometimes kids take off a watch when they play – but the Keruve is not able to be taken off unless they have a special tool to do so. Without that tool your child will be wearing that watch until you take it off from them.

Some disadvantages of a watch are that they are easily discovered and removed by kidnappers, they suffer some serious wear and tear if your child is a boy and they like to adventure, and that they must be worn to be effective. While these disadvantages can all be avoided, it does take a considerable amount of effort to do so.

Keruve GPS Tracking System For Alzheimer’s

A relatively new and novel idea is to use GPS tracking for Alzheimer’s patients. This is a great idea since a good portion of those that suffer from this form of dementia will “wander” at some point. There can be little that is more disturbing than loosing a elderly relative who appears to be healthy and sane but is unable to remember the recent history. They can sometimes suffer greatly when they are lost and separated from their loved ones and familiar surroundings. Real time GPS tracking systems are designed to help track down Alzheimer’s suffers quickly so that they can be restored to comfortable and safe surroundings.

GPS tracking watches for Alzheimer’s patients work well because they are attached to the wrist and if the patient has had a long history of wearing a wrist watch they should have no problem wearing this GPS device. If they do not regularly wear a watch then it might be difficult to get them to do so on their own. If this is the case you might want to pursue other avenues of tracking them or talk with your doctor to come up with ideas on how to introduce a new routine into their life.

Keruve 2010 GPS Tracking System Screen Shots

Here are some screen shots from the Keruve 2010:

Keruve 2010 GPS Tracking System Larger Numbers

Keruve 2010 GPS Tracking System Location ProcessKeruve 2010 GPS Tracking System Look and Feel

As you can see the Keruve 2010 GPS tracking system is an interesting bit of technology. Marketed as a child and Alzheimer’s GPS tracking watch it offers effective tracking services in a user friendly and Internet-less environment. Wherever you have a cell phone signal you can use the Keruve GPS tracking system, making it great for those in urban settings who want to track a person via GPS.

Protect Rental Properties With GPS Tracking Devices

When you own a rental property in a remote location you need to find a way to safe guard your investment, especially if you have high value furnishings on your property.  Some owners have turned to installing GPS tracking devices on high value items, such as flat screen TVs, to help reduce the number of thefts as well as to help the police track down their stolen property.

These owners, located in Sevier County, a county in Tennessee which is home to the famous Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, came up with the idea to install the GPS trackers after a rash of break-ins swept the county.  One owner reported having over 5% of all his holding broken into over a two or three month period.  Another described having to deal with a break-in every two to three weeks.  The object of these burglaries were flat screen TVs and plasma TVs that were put inside these vacation rentals for use by guests.  Unfortunately, the criminal element realized this and capitalized on the secluded nature of these properties to make off with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from many cabins scattered across the mountainous terrain.

The problem simply does not end with a stolen TV.  In order to get inside the rental the thief must do considerable damage to the property by busting a window or damaging a door.  This can cost owners $100s or even $1000s in damages – and that is on top of the money that needs to be spent to replace the stolen TV!

There is a relatively low cost solution to these problems: install a real time GPS tracking device onto the items likely to be stolen.  This will help you recover stolen property, reduce the number of thefts on your property, and help you reduce your insurance rates depending on your insurance provider.

GPS Tracking Devices For Theft Recovery

Theft recovery is a well established use of GPS tracking devices.  For this type of tracking you are going to want a device that is going to be able to transmit the coordinates in real time when asked to.  You are not going to want a device that tracks on a continuous basis.  The reason for this is that this type of real time GPS tracking device is going to run out of batteries very quickly and need to have them replaced on a regular basis.  This is fine if you only have 4 or five properties that are all right next to each other, but when you have a 100 or more properties that are spread out over a significant amount of space it would become a  full time job just to make sure all the trackers had enough battery power.

Instead, you are going to want to get a device that only becomes “active” once it is moved.  There are many different models that have this feature so you should have plenty to choose from.  Once the device has been activated it will alert you to its movements and will either send you periodic updates on its position or it will allow you to send the device SMS messages asking for a new position to be sent to your mobile phone.  Once you are certain your device is on the move you can then send the information along to the police who can then arrest the individual and put them being bars.

The following video is a news story that is featured in our GPS tracking videos section that highlights how these devices can be used:

GPS Tracking Devices For Criminal Elimination

The thing about installing a tracker is that you not only recover your stolen property but you also catch a criminal and put them behind bars.  Theoretically, this will lead to a reduction in the number of crimes since the number of people actually engaging in this illegal activity are going to be unable to do it from behind bars.  There is a similar phenomena in GPS tracking bait cars used by police where some cities have seen dramatic reductions in the number of car thefts as the bait cars have seriously cut into the criminal element in the cities.

In addition to eliminating know criminals, it also creates a atmosphere where this type of theft is discouraged.  Remote cabins seem like the perfect place to perform thefts, but when the whole area knows that cabin owners employ remote GPS trackers then they will think twice about doing something stupid on your property.  This means that GPS tracking units promote less crime now and less crime in the future – a win-win-win for the community, law enforcement, and you.

GPS Tracking Devices For Reduced Insurance Premiums

Insurers like to be safe.  If they think that ensuring your property is risky they will end up charging you more for your insurance then you probably want them to.  Also, having regular break ins will also increase your premium, costing you thousands over the course of your policy.  A good way to combat this increased cost is to start using real time tracking devices.  As was mentioned above, this will help reduce the number of break ins and will and help you recover your property which will help keep premiums low. But you also might be able to get a discount with your insurer if they know that you are using a GPS tracking device in your rental property.  Saving money is always great, so why not ask?

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Protecting your rental properties with GPS tracking devices makes a lot of sense for individuals or companies that are in a region that has a particularly high break in rate.  These devices are becoming increasingly available and are fairly inexpensive for those that are just looking for a real time tracking device that will become “active” upon movement.

GPS Navigation For Cyclists With The iPhone

Wild and crazy Zeptotools has come up with an ingenious way to incorporate an iPhone’s GPS navigation application and an HMD display with the act of riding a bicycle, creating the first cell phone based bicycle navigation system that I am aware of.   They call this system ARider.

While there are many, many detractors of this system – the folks over at Zeptotools do deserve some credit for putting together a prototype of their idea even if it doesn’t prove to be commercially viable.  One has to admit that what they have done in combining these technologies together is just plain cool and that the world of cell phone navigation, GPS tracking applications, and the iPhone will never be the same.

Zeptotools is an iPhone app developer who has created some very slick, very interesting applications. There current applications include ZeptoPad, ZeptoLiner, IRCon, iShodo, BullCam, Quick Pigeon, and Montblanc Pen. The short video to the right gives a really good impression with the type of stuff that these guys are putting out. Everything about it, the music, the cinematography, and even the way the people are dressed gives you all you need to know to understand what these guys are about. Cool stuff. Chic. Web 2.0. Etc.

ARider does not stray from this feel.  While still in the prototype phase, the design is sleek and appealing.  And even though they use Scotch tape to attach the HMD to the bike helmet it still looks really cool.  Here is a video of the GPS system in action to give a little flavor of what this device actually looks like.  It was put together by the folks at Zeptotools so you know it is going to have a cool music score (which it does).  So here it is:

Pretty cool if you ask me. A working prototype for cycling GPS navigation.

The Detractors

With anything so visionary you are going to get people who want to hate on it. The ARider GPS navigation system is no different. Just take a look at some of these comments about this revolutionary GPS tracking mapping device:

Putting your expensive smart phone on top of your bike helmet seems like a good way to destroy it and possibly yourself too, if you get into an accident, which is in turn made more likely by adding distracting displays to your field of view.

And this one:

Dangerous to your expensive iPhone and useless. The only way this would be slightly useful is if you were in a new, unfamiliar city. Urban cyclists, after a year or so of riding, don’t need a map to tell them how to get around their city. In fact, most of the pertinent information to cycling isn’t on any map, let alone Google. Isn’t cycling wonderful because of the freedom? Why would we want to make it more car-like and stick a HMD in front of us?

And another:

As a cyclist, I must say this is a great way to get badly injured while cycling. It’s bad enough to text while driving, but to be distracted on a bike is insanity.

This pretty much sums up the voices of dissent who are too short sighted to see just how cool this thing is. As a regular bike commuter I think that this devices is incredibly cool and could be extremely useful for a whole host of applications, not just GPS navigation related.

ARider and GPS Tracking

One of the coolest things about this application is that it offers an augmented reality.  Apache helicopter pilots experience the same sort of thing when they pilot their helicopter.  The main machine gun mounted on the underside of the helicopter is controlled by the turning of the head of the gunner.  His vision is completely augmented by his helmet and it does take a lot of training to get used to the effect that this has one’s vision.  But that doesn’t mean that this is bad.

For example, not military personnel say, “That sure seems like a good way to crash a multi-million dollar helicopter and waste all the man hours we spent training that pilot.”  That is just silly.  The fact is that augmented reality is powerful and useful tool for incorporating electronic inputs into our realm of experience.

Bionic Eye GPS TrackingI can imagine something like this but use it in relation to people.  Bionic Eye, an iPhone app, already augments reality with business locations.  What would prevent someone creating an application that works together with a GPS tracking application that will give you an idea of where actual people are in your field of vision?  Now that would be fun, useful, and interesting to use.

You could always know where friends and family are at any given moment with the aid of GPS and an augmented reality.  All you would have to do is look in their general direction and you could get a really cool visual of exactly where they are in relation to you just the photo to the right suggests.

The applications for this technology would be robust.  How easy would it be to keep your kids safe in a theme park if you could get a visual idea of how far away they were at any given moment?  You wouldn’t panic if your child gets lost in a crowd or is briefly separated from you.  All you would need to do is use your GPS tracking augmented reality to come up with an idea of where they are at.

The same is true for Alzheimer suffers, teen drivers, spouses, friends, important assets, and the list goes on and on.

So I think that the work by the folks at Zeptotools is really, really cool and could impact not only the world of GPS navigation for cyclists, but also impact how people begin to interact with their position in a way that is currently only being utilized by the military.  Once GPS tracking augmented reality feasible in the day to day of life I think that it will catch on like wildfire and change the face of GPS tracking forever.

Zeptotools: http://zeptotools.com/

GPS Tracking For Real Estate Agents and Prospective Home Buyers

If you are prospective home buyer or a real estate agent who wants to get on the fly, real time house price data then you might want to check out Smarter Agent, a GPS tracking application for real estate prices on your cell phone.  There are several products that Smarter Agent offers that couples the power of GPS position data with the public record information that would be very useful for home buyers and real estate agents alike.  It appears that the application has both free and paid components, letting you give the service a shot before you upgrade to one of the different paid services.

Free Real Estate GPS Tracking Services

From what I can tell from the website and my own playing around, you can get the Homes For Sale cell phone application for free from their website.  This software will turn your GPS-enabled cell phone into a powerful home finding tool.  All you need to do is install the software onto your phone and then take it with you to the neighborhood that you would like to buy a home in. With just the press of a single button you will have a map display of your location and the location of the 10 nearest homes for sale around you.  Users can zoom the map in or zoom the map out so they can get a tighter or wider view of the listing and surrounding area.  If you want to see more information about the home then just scroll to and take a look.

If you would prefer to see things as a list, this free GPS cell phone application lets you you do just that.  It lets you see the top 10 properties that are the closest to the exact location where you are standing according to the cell’s GPS tracking chip.  The list view allows you to view property details, plot results on a map, save your search, or expand it to see additional properties in your vicinity. There is even the ability to save your search if you thought that the listings were particularly important to your home search.

Smarter Agent’s Homes For Sale also displays some detailed information about each listing if you want to give that a look.  You can see such things at the house’s address, the sale price, the number of beds and bathrooms, the square footage of the home, the estimated mortgage given certain parameters like interest rate and down payment, and the taxes that the home owner pays when that information is available.  This information can be huge for those that are just getting acquainted with an area and want find out where some of the houses for sale are located.

In all, this is a great way for people looking for a solid GPS real estate application to get their feet wet for free.

Paid Real Estate GPS Tracking Services

The main reason that Smarter Agent is offering their Homes for Sale application for free is that they are hoping that people will buy their premium product, Recently Sold Homes. For $4.99 a month you can have access to information about the closest homes sold within the last three years.  The information available from this GPS application includes the last sold price for homes nearby, the last sold date, and the square footage of the home sold.  As you can imagine, this can be very helpful information for getting an understanding of how competitively prices some of the current homes for sale are.

While this information is not going to be incredibly precise, it is still helpful for those that are new to a region to get an idea of what is going on in a region’s real estate market.  If you are just starting out with a real estate search then you might want to consider getting your GPS tracking cell phone out and installing Homes For Sale.  If you like the way it works and are particularly interested in homes in a certain area then you might want to buy the Recently Sold Homes application as well.  The $4.99 might save you some considerable time in your searches.

Compatible Sprint GPS Cell Phones

Homes for Sale is available on the following Sprint mobile phones:

  • Blackberry Curve 8300
  • Blackberry 8800 World Phone
  • Blackberry Pearl
  • Blackberry Tour
  • LG 535
  • LG LX 550 Fusic
  • LG LX570 Muziq
  • LG lx400
  • LG Lotus
  • LG Rumor
  • Motorola KRZR K1m
  • Motorola RAZR V3m
  • Motorola SLVR L7c
  • Motorola RAZR2 V9m
  • Palm Pre
  • Samsung A900
  • Samsung A920
  • Samsung M500
  • Sanyo Pro200
  • Samsung M610
  • Samsung M620 UPSTAGE
  • Samsung A727
  • Samsung M520
  • Samsung Instinct
  • Samsung Rant
  • Samsung S30
  • Sanyo 6600 Katana
  • Sanyo 7400
  • Sanyo 7500
  • Sanyo 6650 Katana 2
  • Sanyo 8500 Katana DLX
  • Sanyo 8300
  • Sanyo 8400
  • Sanyo M1
  • Sanyo 7050
  • Sanyo Pro700

Compatible AT&T GPS Cell Phones

Homes for Sale is available on the following Sprint mobile phones:

  • Apple iPhone
  • Blackberry 8100 Pearl
  • Blackberry 8300 Curve
  • Blackberry 8800 World Phone
  • Blackberry 9000 Bold
  • Blackberry Pearl
  • LG CU400
  • LG CU500
  • LG CU575 Trax
  • LG CU515
  • LG CU720 Shine
  • Motorola KRZR
  • Motorola SLVR L6
  • Motorola SLVR L7
  • Motorola RAZR V3
  • Motorola v365
  • Motorola RAZR2 V9
  • Motorola V3xx
  • Nokia 6085
  • Nokia 6555
  • Samsung A437
  • Samsung A707
  • Samsung A717
  • Samsung D407
  • Sony w300i
  • Sony w580i
  • Sony w810i

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GPS tracking is becoming more and more important for cell phone users as more and more applications are becoming available that allow users interact with the world around them in such a way that they get what they want, when they want it, and where they want to get it.  We are becoming a mobile society, GPS and cell phone technology are giving use everything we could every want when it comes to have relevant, location-based information in real time.

Subprime Lenders Get a GPS Tracking Solution Just For Them

Owners of  Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) car business have a new weapon to lower skips and repossession.  It is a new GPS tracking device from Proconn and it is called The CUBE.  The new, credit card sized tracker is available through Proconn’s subprime automotive finance brand GoldStar GPS.

This technology could not be making it onto the market at a better time, consider the economic climate we are in and this quote from a business owner in the industry, ” … BHPH used car dealers [are] closing their doors all around me….”  Business all around are feeling their profit margins shrink and find themselves needing to run a much tighter ship.  GPS tracking has historically been able to provide this for all sorts of business in types of circumstances.

Why Use GPS Tracking In BHPH?

GPS tracking devices have been proven to be incredibly useful already in several similar applications. Probably the most similar use that I am aware of is in the theft recovery market. In particular, police have been very successful using GPS tracking bait cars to recover vehicles that are specifically designed to get stolen. BHPH GPS tracking works in much the same way.

But what does this doe for a BHPH car business owners? Here are a few benefits:

  • Lower the cost of repossession by saving time – If you know exactly where a vehicle in need of repossession is, you save tons of time in the search process. You can find the car in just minutes and have it towed away in no time at all.
  • Get a grip in your assets management – another major issue that some owners face is having too many cars out and not enough resources to keep track of them all. Once you reach a certain number of vehicles on the road you need some help keeping track of them all and a GPS system is just the thing the doctor ordered.
  • Increase your loan portfolio with less risk – The obvious outcome of the two reasons mentioned above is that you can increase the number of cars that you lend at a reduced risk to yourself and your bottom line. This means that the company can bring in more money, which is always a good thing.

The Cost of The CUBE and GoldStar GPS Tracking

Now the question remains, how much does all this cost? The short answer is that it depends. There is no cost mentioned anywhere on their website and a Google search did not generate any results.

This is to be expected since most business-to-business deals are negotiated. You can certainly contact GoldStar GPS for more information on their pricing structure.

GPS Tracking Features

The CUBE GPS Tracking DeviceWhat is clear on the company’s website are all the features that come with their GPS vehicle monitoring system. Here is a quick run down of some of the feature that this car recovery system sports:

  • Daily Location Report – You will automatically be given the location of the vehicle that you own at least once a day.  This is a “free” location check and will not count against the total number of locates you can make in a given month.  The information is also stored to create a vehicle history so that you can easily get an idea of where the vehicle has been while out of your possession.
  • Stop Report – Another way to get information on your vehicle is to set up stop reporting.  Once a device is no longer in motion for a specified period of time the device will send the location to you so that you can know where the vehicle is making stops.
  • trakSMS™ – This is a wonderful feature for the The CUBE GPS tracking device.  It is a way for a user to remotely control certain aspects of the vehicle’s GPS tracker.  With a simple text message from any text capable cell phone you can find out the speed, direction, and address of the unit as well as have the ability to lock or unlock the doors  and to cut the engine.  How would a person evading repossession like that!
  • Warning Buzzer – This feature lets car owners send a buzz to car users letting them know that a payment is due soon.  If payment is late, dealers can then disable the vehicle.  Fear is a great motivator to get payments in on time.
  • Real-Time Alerts and Notifications – The GoldStar GPS tracking system lets you set up custom alerts that will notify owners of when the car is on the move or whether or not the car has traveled outside one of the six owner generated GeoFences.  This is great when you think a customer may be trying to skip town with your car.
  • State-of-the-Art Mapping and Imaging – This vehicle tracking system utilizes the latest and greatest in GPS tracking software user interfaces.  You can either use Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth to see the units location in a wide variety of views (road map, satellite, or hybrid).

This is a well rounded device that is relatively easy to install and incredibly powerful for business owners looking to improve their profit margins and ensure the safety of their business by keeping tabs on their assets. If you have never though about using a car GPS tracking device for your BHPH car business then now is the time.

Police Use GPS Tracking To Make Bait Cars More Effective

Car theft is a huge problem in the United State. According to some reports, every 25 seconds there is a car somewhere being stolen, with the majority of the thefts occurring in metropolitan areas. This is all about to change as police are getting savvy to emerging technologies and employing GPS tracking devices in specialized bait cars designed to nab would be criminals in the act. How far do you think a thief is going to get with the watchful eyes in the sky peering down on them? Police in cities all across America know that they will not get far.

While the practice of using bait cars is certainly not new, the recent integration of several different technologies together has made them much more effective. Things like real time GPS tracking as well as a few other features generally used in a fleet management context, like remote engine shut off, are now being employed to help police track down bait cars once they have been stolen and nab the suspects. Also, hidden cameras installed inside the vehicle make sure that police are able to gather solid proof that the person they apprehend is in fact the person that toke the car.

As you might suspect, these bait cars are very helpful for police trying to reduce automobile theft. There are four things that are particularly helpful for the police:

  1. Reduce cost associated with operating a bait car sting – In the past, whenever the police would try and use a bait car technique they would always have to have an officer present around the vehicle to make sure that when the car was taken it could be easily tracked and recovered.  Since these vehicles can sit for days without any action, the police would “waste” precious tax payer dollars watching a car.  Now that GPS tracking systems have been installed in these vehicles  the police can know whenever the automobile is on the move, dispatching the closest unit to the scene to take care of the situation.  Once the squad car comes onto the scene the dispatcher can turn off the engine of the bait car and the suspect can be easily apprehended.  This saves metropolitan governments tons of money since they can use existing resources in the field, resources which they are already paying for.
  2. Increase effectiveness in tracking down suspects because of the GPS tracking device – As was mentioned in the previous point, having the GPS coordinates of the stolen vehicle is a very useful for tracking it down and recovering the vehicle.  By using real time GPS tracking for cars, the police will be able to monitor the vehicles movements and capture it on their own terms.  Perhaps they want to wait on the car to see if it taken to a chop so that they can crack down on the larger criminal ecosystem that runs in hot cars – no problem, they can let this happen with confidence knowing that they will know the location of the vehicle at any moment.
  3. Generate an amazing conviction rate – According to one insurance provider involved in these GPS tracking bait cars, Nationwide, the conviction rate is 98 percent for suspects picked up in connection with their use.  That is excellent.
  4. Reduce the number of car thieves – One of the consequences of such a high conviction rate is that less crimes are occurring in cities that use these high tech techniques.  For example, Las Vegas, Nevada has seen an amazing 44 percent reduction in the number of car thefts after just two years of using GPS tracking to recover the stolen vehicles.  Another city, Charlotte, North Carolina, has seen a 20 percent reduction in just one year of use.  This leads me to believe two things about this technique.  The first is that the longer this technique is used the larger the drop in car thefts will be.  The second is that using GPS tracker equipped bait cars is effective because it nabs repeat offenders, taking them off the street and behind bars.  Since only a few thieves are responsible for a large potion of theft this is a very effective tool at reducing the number of thefts in the future.

When police use GPS vehicle tracking they are very effective at convicting criminals, reducing costs, and running a more effective and efficient government.

But this type of tracking is certainly not without its hazards.  The one main thing that could seriously inhibit the polices use of bait cars are GPS tracking blockers.  If a criminal were to use this technology the police would be unable to locate the car.  If they were then to use some sort of cell phone or radio jammer as well then the police would also not be able to shut off the car remotely.  The criminals would win and the police would be out a very expensive tool in the fight against crime. Luckily, many are not aware of GPS blockers or how to effectively use them.

This is another clear example of the good that governments using GPS tracking can accomplish.  Do you think that this is a valid use of GPS tracking by a government agency?  Should the police be limited in doing this?  Is it an appropriate use of tax payer dollars?

Elderly Man Saved By SPOT GPS Tracker

One elderly man is very happy that his son had his SPOT GPS tracker with him when an ATV accident on an annual hunting trip left him unconscious and bleeding from the head.  The accident, which occurred in August this year, came just two days after the unique tracking device was active by his son.

The SPOT GPS tracker is a stand alone real time GPS tracking device that works in a way different from most tracking devices.  Instead of relying upon a cellular network to get its position data out so that it can be tracked it uses commercial satellites to relay this data to interested parties.

It is also specifically designed for outdoor enthusiasts who get away from civilization and cell phone signals.  It has a specially designed 9-1-1 button that will notify local rescue authorities that you are having an emergency and that you need assistance.  You can imagine how useful this feature is for people who in need of assistance when they are miles away from civilization.

Clarence Kolcun was 8 km away from base camp when he lost control of his ATV and rolled the vehicle on top of himself. When his son, Gordon, got to the scene of the accident his father was unconscious and bleeding from the head. Unable to adequately treat his father, he woke him up and drove the 8 km back to the base camp to retrieve the SPOT GPS tracker so that he could activate the 9-1-1 feature.

Twenty minutes after the 9-1-1 button was pushed, the Kolcun family was contacted by search and rescue authorities who inquired about the details of the men using the tracking device as well as some other identifying information like the make and model of their vehicle and the color of their ATVs.

This is by and large the strongest selling point for this type of GPS tracking unit.  Being able to mobilize help in such a short time span is paramount in being able to survive an accident. Clarence was unable to move and could sense that he suffered from internal injuries.  If there was no SPOT GPS tracker then help would have arrived much later than it eventually did.

As you might expect, the emergency personnel were able to locate the injured man and his companion and they were air lifted out of the bush so that the injuries of the injured could be treated.

SPOT GPS Tracker: SOS Device

This device is absolutely fantastic as an SOS GPS tracker.  Because it does not rely on cell phone signals it is able to work in a wide variety of circumstances that would not normally be possible with conventional tracking units.  This story is just one of the many different situations where a product of this nature did save the life of hunter, hiker, climber, or camper – and it certainly won’t be the last.

While these type of devices are certainly not perfect, they do provide a level of safety for outdoor adventurers that is unparalleled by any other device out on the market.  Just take a look at the coverage that this device enjoys:

SPOT GPS Tracker Coverage Map

This means that if you are on an adventure in Australia and you find yourself lost and stranded in the Outback without water and food all you need to do is press your 9-1-1 SOS button and you are going to know that the authorities are going to be notified of your need and given your GPS coordinates sot that they can find you and provide the help that you need.

This type of GPS tracking system is certainly not cheap.  As you can see, the device itself costs around $100 – but that is not the end of the cost associated with this device.  For 1 year of basic service you are going to have to pony up another $100.  While this may seem like a lot right now, I am sure that when something catastrophic happens then it will seem like nothing!

When it comes down to it, the vast majority of people are not going to need a device like this.  Thousands upon thousands of people go out into the wilderness each year and come home without incident.  They simply do not need a GPS device that tracks their movements and alerts family members of their whereabouts.  It is superfluous for these people.

But then every year there are dozens upon dozens of individuals or groups that could definitely benefit from this type of tracking capability.  They have a very serious injury in their party and the difference between life and death can only be a matter of minutes.  It is for these people that the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger are some important for.

Who will these people be?  If you have an elderly person in your hunting or camping party, it could be you.  Or if you have young children on your back packing trip, it could be you.  If you have a first time climber going up the mountain with you, it could be you.  If you attempting a dangerous route, it could be you.  The thing is, it could be any of us at any moment.  We just never know when a stray rock is going to slide off a mountain and strike one of our companions, or a wild animal decide to attack, or a freak weather phenomena blows away all your gear.  Anyone could need the help of a SOS GPS tracker.

That is why we need to walk with out eyes open when we make these types of trips out into the wilderness.  If we have weighed our options and decided that we don’t need the assistance of a GPS tracking device to give us the extra sense of security then we should not buy one.  But when we want that little extra comfort of knowing that help is only a button away – that is when getting a SPOT GPS tracker is the right move.

How To Use GPS Car Tracking Systems

There are many different uses for GPS car tracking systems.  How you decide to use this technology and for what purpose is almost entirely case specific.  There are some things about this technology that do transcend your particular use of it, namely, that the device is going to be using the Global Positioning System to determine its location through the process of trilateration and that the device will either store this data locally (a data logger) or will send this data to a third party (a real time GPS tracker).  Once this data is ready to be processed, users will then interact with their GPS coordinates through a map interface that is going to resemble the ever popular Google Maps.

Each tracking company is going to provide certain features or UI bells and whistles that might appeal to certain submarkets of individuals looking to use a GPS car tracking system.  For example, a tracking system designed to monitor teen drivers is going to differ from a system designed as a theft recovery system even though the same fundamental process is going on in the actual GPS tracking device and in the GPS software behind the scenes.  But because the information that end users want is going to be different the different companies generally tailor their products for certain purposes.

What follows is a listing of some of the more common areas where a person may want to use a car tracking system, with each area having a few tips on how to best make use of GPS tracking to get the most out of the system.

Track a Teen Driver

When it comes to driving, one of the most important things for a parent with a teen driver to do is to make sure that they are correctly and safely operating the vehicle.  You often spend hours with your teen showing them how to drive properly, how to obey the speed limit, how to make safe lane changes, and how to maneuver the various hazards that driving throws at you.  Your efforts are painstaking and appear to produce a lot of results.

Little do you know, however, that once your teen is out driving alone or with their group of friends they turn into an entirely different driver.  They are reckless, risk takers who live in the moment without thinking about the potential consequences of their actions.  They get a little hot headed and that is very dangerous.

GPS tracking can be particularly helpful in assisting a parent both in determining their teen’s driving habits when they are not around and in monitoring their progress so they can discipline their teen’s driving appropriately.

But how can one use a GPS car tracking systems more effectively when tracking their teens?  Here are some ideas:

  • Make sure your teen is aware of the tracking device.  It won’t act as a deterrent to bad driving habits if the teen does not know that it exists.
  • Set very clear guidelines for how your teen should be driving the car as well as the rewards and punishments associated with good and bad driving.  Honest and open communication works best for teenagers and for parents, that way if you have to bring the hammer you can point to your conversations and show that you really meant what you said when you talked about the family driving rules.
  • Monitor your teen’s driving in small bits each day.  If you wait until the end of the month to look at the driving data then you will have to sift through 30 days of driving to find out if any rules have been broken.  It is much better to spend 5 minutes going over the GPS tracking software than it is to spend 3 hours at the end of the month doing it.
  • Get a real time GPS tracking device.  These are superior pieces of technology when compared to simple data loggers.  While real time trackers do generally have battery issues, this can easily be overcome by hard wiring the device to run off of the car’s power supply.  You will appreciate the ability to know where your teen is at any given moment of the day when they are using the car.

If you want to track your teen but want to do so very cheaply then you might want to consider going with a cell phone as your tracking device.  These powerful gadgets can easily be outfitted with some free GPS tracking software, making it some of the cheapest GPS tracking around.  You might not get a full fledged GPS car tracking system like you would if you went with a more commercial package – but GPS data is GPS data and you should be able to figure it out.

Monitor a Wayward Spouse

Another important use of car tracking systems is to help spouses find out the truth.  It is very sad some spouses cheat on one another (in my opinion this should never happen, but it does require a lot of explaining and now it not the place).  What makes it even worse, is that the cheating is often ongoing and done in secret – all the while the cheater is acting normal.  This can put the spouse who is being cheated on in danger of contracting various diseases in addition to being an incredible emotional and psychological blow.

As I have mentioned before, it is perfected acceptable for a spouse to track their spouse with GPS.  I don’t see it as any violation of trust and it certainly isn’t wrong.  Now you can do evil with GPS tracking, but that doesn’t mean that the actual act of tracking was wrong in an of itself.

For those that want to use GPS tracking to see if a spouse is cheating you might want to consider the follow things:

  • Get a covert vehicle tracking device.  Chances are that if you are going to be tracking a potential cheater then you want to do so in a way that will not let them know that you are tracking them.  There are plenty of small, highly portable GPS devices out on the market so you will have your pick. I would probably recommend getting a data logger since these generally let you track for much longer periods of time than a real time tracker would normally allow (weeks instead of days).
  • Be secretive. This not only goes for the GPS car tracking device you purchase, but also in how you go about installing the device, retrieving it, and monitoring your spouse’s activity. When you install the device do so at night or when the car is parked in a secluded location, like a garage. Retrieving the device should follow a similar pattern. Also, when you look at the tracking data on your GPS tracking software be sure that you hide your tracks. This will involve deleting any web browsing history that your session logged as well as the cookie that your log in created. This isn’t absolutely necessary, but is good if your spouse has a habit of checking internet histories.
  • Tell a friend about it. The last thing you want to do is keep the fact that you suspect your spouse of cheating and have installed a tracking device in their car a secret. Don’t just tell any friend, but only hold a very reliable, tight lipped friend with the information. That way you can release some of the burden from your own soul and get some input on how to go about doing things.
  • Don’t do something evil with the knowledge. Once you find out the truth on whether or not your spouse is cheating you need to make good decisions with that knowledge. If you find that they are cheating tell a close friend and get immediate help. The blow to your soul can be very grave indeed and you are going to need to do a lot of healing.  Just don’t make matters worse by doing something illegal, immoral, or dangerous to yourself.

In most instances, creating your own spouse tracking GPS is not going to be an option – so you might expect to shell out a good chunk of change to pull off this type of tracking effort. I think a safe estimate is anywhere between $150-$250 for the tracker.

Improve Fleet Performance

Another important use of GPS systems for cars is in the role of fleet tracking and management.  Since this is mostly a commercial application it is probably going to be outside the scope of most of the readers here, so suffice it to say that businesses of that employ commercial fleets of one shape or another can benefit significantly from having one of these devices employed.

Generally speaking, they offer a functionality and features that are hard to find in the consumer market and are designed to create efficiencies that most normal people are unconcerned about – like cutting down idling time, optimizing routes, and monitoring driver activity.  As such, I will keep my recommendations short and few:

  • Plan how to implement the system before you make your purchase.  If you need to talk with several different providers to see how they recommend you employ their system.
  • Roll out the plan to your employees in a non-confrontational manner.  They need to know that this system is going to improve the business, not be used to watch employees like Big Brother.
  • And finally, use common sense in how you move your workers toward an effective use of the fleet tracking system.  Not everyone is going to be gun ho about it at the beginning so make sure changes happen slowly but deliberately so that they can see the improvement first hand.

Fleet managers and business owners should really consider using car tracking systems since they have been shown to significantly increase the efficiency of fleets, reduce costs, and increase revenue.

Theft Recovery

Finally, the last category under which most GPS car tracking devices fall is theft recovery.  While it is certainly not the most common use of GPS in cars, it certainly is an effective one. Just imagine how useful it would be if you actually suffered a stolen vehicle?

You wake up and realize that your car is no longer in your driveway.  A small, sudden panic slow crescendos until your heart is beating so loud you can hardly hear yourself think.  A million thoughts scream in your mind until one voice calms them all.  “Check where your car is online.”

You race to the computer and log in to your online GPS car tracking system.  In the time it takes to boot up your computer and start using Mozilla Firefox you have an exact location for your car.  You immediately phone the police who thank you for your GPS coordinates and let you know that they are going to recover you car.

A few hours later, the police have recovered your vehicle and apprehended a suspect in relation to your car theft – all thanks to GPS car tracking.

Here are some tips to make sure that you understand how your GPS auto tracking device is going to work best for you and your theft recovery hopes:

  • Install the tracking device in a hidden location near the back of the car.  The reason I like the back of the car is that it is often not searched by thieves and might be out of range of any GPS tracking blocker that a thief might try to use.
  • Make sure that the battery is charged or is hard wired to the vehicle’s power supply.  The later option is a little more difficult if you do place your tracking device at the back of the car, so some might want to put the tracker at the front of the car anyway.
  • Use a reliable service.  Lojack is probably the biggest name out there when it comes to theft recovery systems, but there are certainly others.

A short word about home made theft recovery systems: it doesn’t seem wise to me.  There are a lot of things that could go wrong with a homemade GPS system, so making sure that you have all your ducks in a row is super important.  It is certainly possible, I just wouldn’t recommend it.

Conclusion

GPS car tracking systems are going to be the norm in a few years or in a decade or two.  This is without question the way that auto makers, cell phone companies, and personal GPS navigation device manufaturers are taking the consumer market.  As this happens we are going to see even more ways to use this new, fun, and innovative technology to make our lives better and create a more verdant future.

Government GPS Tracking Implants: The Good

The other day, we looked at all the bad that government GPS tracking implants could bring about if it were adopted by a government and used with ill intent.  But that is not the only side to the implantable GPS debate – there is also much good that these devices can do.  Today, let us consider just what good could come about.

We have already clearly established that implanted GPS tracking can be extremely evil if used will ill intent, but we have spent no time discussing all the good that can come of having a world where implantable GPS tracking is possible.  The amount of good might still not compare to the amount of evil, but it is still at least worth our consideration.  If we find that the amount of good exceed the amount of evil that can be done then we should at least consider developing this type of technology.

Some of the more interesting and useful applications of this type of tracking include:

1. Catching Criminals

One of the main functions of governments is to maintain justice and to see the that the wicked are punished for their crimes.  As things stand, there is a lot that can help criminals escape prosecution – but probably the most important element that prosecutors need to do is to link a criminal to the scene of the crime.  We have made great strides at this as a civilization through the discovery of finger printing and DNA evidence, but we have not filled up all the holes in our judicial system yet.  If we could leverage a nation wide GPS tracking system that involves implanted GPS we would have a nearly flawless crime analysis tool on our hands.

The first step would be being able to track down suspects that could have potentially been involved in a crime.  Any murder of theft is bound to leave a GPS trail for the police to follow.  If the murder was a close range shooting or stabbing then all the police would need to do is pull up all the people who where at such and such location around such and such a time.  They then could evaluate each person to see if they are likely to be a suspect.

Once they have determined some potential suspects they would just have to get the real time position of the suspect using the GPS tracking device implanted in their body.  Tracking them down would then be as easy as driving to their location.  No costly stake outs.  No mistaken identities.

Even though the cost of the system as a whole would be very great, the cost saving for the police would be pretty significant.  The amount of time that it would take to identify suspects, locate them, and bring them in for questioning could all be taken care of relatively quickly, saving thousands of man hours and millions of dollars.

The number of crimes are not limited to theft and murder.  Essentially any crime that involves a location could be tracked using this type of system.  Speeding, illegal dumping, stalking, rape, kidnapping, abduction, abuse, and a whole host of other crimes could be handled in a much more precise and useful manner with the administration of a little GPS technology.

2. Improving Emergency Responses

Another huge benefit would be the improved nature of emergency response personnel.  Imagine a 911 call coming in from a small child, named Tim.  It is coming from 401 North Cumberland Lane and Tim has indicated that his mommy is laying on the floor and won’t get up and that there is a lot of smoke in the house.  Immediately, fire fighters and paramedics can be dispatched to the scene.  As they go their computers light up with information that there are 2 people in at the house.  They get a Google Map-like  satellite image of the house with small indicators as to the GPS location of each of the people inside.  They also get an elevation reading that lets them know if the people are in a downstairs or upstairs area of the home.

Armed with this information they arrive on the scene and are able to quickly enter the home and target the areas where the GPS indicated there were people in house.  A rescue is quickly achieved and the fire fighting begins in earnest.  If there was no GPS tracking implant in each of the residents the fire fighters would have to have done a thorough room by room search to make sure that there was no one else in the home – putting them at risk and increasing the amount of time that it might take to put ou the fire.

Medical emergencies would also be much easier to respond to if the paramedics had the GPS coordinates of the patient.  This is especially true when the patient is in a remote area or where there are a lot of people that might impair the paramedics vision.  Also, in transit to the patient the paramedics would have laser like instructions on how to get there and would not loose any time to wrong directions.

3. Improving Military Operations

In a military setting, troops would always know where friends are at all times and could avoid the costly and demoralizing “friendly fire” that has plagued soldiers in all modern wars.  While making use of the implantable tracking devices would require an integration of personal combat computers for each and every soldier, it is not unreasonable to assume that by the time we develop the technology to implant GPS devices in our bodies we will also have the ability to give each soldier their own combat computer.

This could translate the GPS data into helpful instructions that would give each soldier the ability to make lightning quick choices about whether their target is a friend or a foe in the most tense of situations.  It would also allow military commander to know exactly where their soldiers are at any given moment.  Captured soldiers could also be easily tracked, revealing the source of enemy prisons and detention centers.  Rescue attempts would be much easier to pull off and no men would ever be left behind.

4. Assist In Urban Planning

One of the key benefits of universal GPS tracking implants that are monitored and use by the government is that it would allow them to do a lot of civic planning and development.  They could analyze population densities and come up with plans to aid in the flow of individuals for work and for leisure.  An example of this might be a growing suburb of a massive metropolitan area.  After some analysis of the GPS data they find that the majority of people in this area use a major highway in order to head south into the city for work and for play.  They also realize that the other suburbs north also do the same thing, so there is a massive flight from the suburbs out into the city.  This causes a lot of traffic congestion and leads to a lot of pollution and stress.

The government could then step in and do one of a variety of things to solve the problem.  They could try and entice some business to relocate to a friendlier location for their employees.  A move north along the highway corridor would help reduce the overall south bound traffic and ease some of the congestion.  The government could increase the size of the highway corridor to improve speeds and accommodate more commuters.  They could improve the public transportation system to encourage more commuters to make use of this environmentally friendly, cheap, and efficient mode of transportation.

Information like this could also be used to make development decisions. If a particular region does not have the infrastructure to move ahead with a planned development project than the government can step in and intervene.  This will have a limiting affect on some types of growth, but overall I think that it would make cities better run, safer, and more “citizen friendly.”

Finally, governments could make better use of their land if they could know how it was being used by citizens.  If a park never was used or a library never frequented then governments could make the tough decisions to close these centers or to re-purpose them for a more efficient use.  In the end, I think that this would end up saving tax payers a lot of money and would make the government provide the services that the citizens need and want.

5. Increase Business and Governmental Accountability

Another important benefit of a nation-wide GPS tracking implant system is the increased accountability of business and government organizations.  For example, a government inspector is supposed to go around and inspect elevators on all the building in New York City.  Right now, there is very little accountability to make sure that they do that other than the people taking them at their word that such and such was done.  Another example might be a police officer who is tasked with patroling a particularly dangerous part of town, how are we to know he has been faithful to his duty and not just parked at a donut shop all evening?

If you introduce a GPS tracking system to the equation you come to see that there is little that these employees and government agencies can hide from the public (if the information is made publically available, which it would be under the Freedom of Information act).  They are held accountable for their actions.

Private corporations would be the same.  Imagine that some nasty industrial waste begins to show up in a natural preserve somewhere in the West.  How will the dumping party be held responsible?  Just go to the GPS tracking log and check out all the people that have gone to that area and find out what their speed was as they traveled there to tell who drove a car, who walked, etc.  Once you have that list you can interview each individual if there is more than one suspect or you could cross reference names on this list with others from a company payroll.  Either way, you will find out who did the dumping and the person they dumped for in no time at all.

How Will Our Future Look?

I don’t know about you, but I think that the future of GPS tracking implants is a little in the dark.  While this list of benefits is useful and good for society at large I just don’t think that it currently outweights the gross injustices that a government could perpetrate with this type of tracking system in place.  Citizens would have no privacy and absolutely no expectation that they would have any.  I could imagine a whole subclass of people that spurn the trackers and that are forced to live underground or in remote regions of the country in an attempt to evade the all seeing eyes of the government.

But this does not mean that all GPS implants should be avoided.  There might be a strong argument for personal GPS tracking implants, but perhaps we will visit that topic another day.

Government GPS Tracking Implants: The Bad and The Ugly

One of the most feared and most useful futures of GPS tracking technology is almost certainly implantable GPS tracking chips. We have all seen the bleak futures where citizens are under the constant supervision of some totalitarian government whose sole purpose seems to be to torment them.  It is a well established film genre that has deep roots in the cold war psyche of the Western world.  The world of Orwells’ 1984 would have been twice as bad if they could have had a GPS chip in each of the citizens in this dystopia.  One thing is clear, given just a few moments of reflection almost anyone can think of the mountains of evil that such a system could potentially generate.

But what about all the good that this system could accomplish, do we ever think about that?  We have been trained by our culture to overlook the potentially massive benefits that would also accompany such a system because of the possibility of abuse.  As a result, our fears could be causing us to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Is the development of GPS tracking implants something that we should consider doing?  Do the potential dangers out weight the potential benefits?

The Evil of GPS Tracking Implants

The number of evils that could be accomplished with this type of information is obvious and extensive.  I would generally think of classifying the issues in terms of two main ways of abusing the information gathered from such a system: (1) dispatching of government opponents, and (2) using private information for profit.

1. Dispatching of Government Opponents

One of the most insidious methods that a government could use a universal GPS tracking system would be to kill their citizens that opposed their regime.  Since they would know the exact location of everyone of their citizens it would be simple enough for them to dispatch a death squad that would easily be able to locate anyone anywhere.  The only “safe” place for such dissidents would be underground somewhere where neither GPS nor cell phone signals could possibly find them.  This would mean that even if the government did not kill someone, they would effectively remove them from being a threat by forcing them to spend their whole life underground.

A little less insidious but just as dangerous would be the threat of constant arrest.  If you  were to voice some concern about the government they could find all sorts of ways to get you into jail by using the information gather from your implanted GPS tracking chip.  They might arrest you outright, picking you up on the street as you make your way to the supermarket to buy some milk.  They might even rig a trial to get you arrested for a crime you didn’t commit.  All they would need is to have you at the scene of some crime – like a murder – and use the GPS location information to tie them to the crime.

A third way that government might be able to use GPS tracking information to hurt their citizens is by making public information about their personal, private activities.  If an opponent frequents a church, or goes to a psychologist, or has met with the same woman who is not his wife for the past year and a half at a hotel the government could make this information known by leaking it to close friends, relatives, or the media.  Also, their ability to identify and exploit known vices would increase dramatically if they had a repository of all know position data on a individual.

These are just a few of the ways that governments equipped with widespread, cheap GPS tracking implants could use the information to hurt their opponents.  There are more, but for now let us turn our attention to another form of government evil, profiting from its citizens.

2.  Using Private Information For Profit

In this case of government abuse the basic sin that the government would be committing is making public private information about their citizens.  They could do this in any number of ways, but I think mentioning three would suffice to give us a feel for the wickedness that they could do.

The first is that they could sell GPS tracking information to corporations to “improve” advertising targeting.  This was the impetus behind the Palm Pre cell phone tracking software debacle and is a desire that I don’t think is going to go away anytime soon.  Just imagine how much money they could make if they could sell data to every single corporation in the world.  They could tell car companies who likes to drive fast while in the highways, who generally travels with more than one person in the car, where they go when the travel, and how often they travel.  If the government could then correlate this data with tax returns then companies would have a picture of their potential customers that would enable them to provide laser targeted advertising.

This ability would be even greater if companies could also get live position data on particular individuals that they have targeted for adverting campaigns.   They could feed you ads with the aid of real time GPS tracking.  Imagine this for a second: You are driving down a lonely stretch of highway when you come upon a billboard.  On it is the following message:

Bill, you have driving your 2074 Ford Apocalypse 209,987 miles since your last oil change – don’t you think its time to get one?

Satan’s Auto Store is off of exit 22 and charges $0.03 for an oil change when you mention this billboard!

Now that is laser targeted advertising, and it is really creepy!

Similarly, companies could also use this type of information to identify potential markets and products.  If  a coffee company called Starmonies wants to identify a new set of real estate for to put up a store they can analyze foot traffic in downtown Los Angelos to help identify the point where the most coffee drinkers walk during peek coffee consuming hours.  Or a company might take advantage of GPS tracking data to find out if they can market a certain service in an area.  Either way, the government is going to profiting for your private information.

The third way that the government could use GPS information would be to manipulate the population for means of perpetuating government.  One very common method of population manipulation that already goes on is the redrawing of district boundaries for elections.  This would become even easier as the data would be much better than census data and could potentially be correlated to voting information (hey, it could happen), tax returns, and criminal records.  In the end, no congressman or senator would ever get kicked out of office because they could always just redraw the boundary until they have a plurality of votes.

Now That Is Wicked!

There is no doubt that a lot of evil could be done with GPS tracking devices that are implanted inside each and every citizen in a country.  The government and private corporations would have access to insane amounts of information about people that would would make the whole system scary if it were to be misused and abused.  Dissidents, opponents, and even society’s unwanted stand to suffer countless crimes against humanity if the whims of public opinion or political power were to turn against them.

Any scientist who would develop such a system should take warning.  Human nature is deceitfully wicked and without some serious checks in place there is no telling what type of authoritarian regime would be created when GPS tracking becomes this extensive.  It is worth development if such terrible things could be done?

Next we will turn out attentio to the good GPS tracking implants could do, but until then, just sit and ponder the inexplicable wickedness of man!