Somebody
is following you?
With
Smartphones, Nothing’s Secret
Are we all
walking around with a track-me tag?
The new-age tag is the cellphone, which lets cellular operators track you or allows a smartphone application to feed on personal details while signing up for one.
Operators know where you are because they are always determining the nearest tower to route your call, where the calls are coming from, how long it lasted and whether you are hooked to the phone. These are priceless details for sellers and advertisers who could be buying them to hawk their wares.
“Cellular operators don’t just bill you, they record your call details and sell them,” said new media expert and professor at University of Madras, Gopalan Ravindran. We know cellphone operators sweep up data, but what we still don’t know is the extent to which they go because they are not bound to make it public. This cache of data piles up in their reservoir servers for at least six months, which is enough time to analyze you.
Hearing this, you might feel violated, but most of the time tracking is done with your consent. The app-rich smartphones that shadow you everywhere are the best info-snatchers that companies and advertisers can dream of. A smartphone user is inadvertently telling what he eats where he shops, what movies he watches, and about his meetings, bank balances and travel routes.
Developers in the UK recently designed a mobility algorithm that predicts your movement and direction in a shopping region.
Experts say there is actually no solution to evade this realtime surveillance. The only way is to bin your batteries. When you sign into Foursquare, a social networking site, it updates the world on where you are. Though leading service providers refuse to reveal the exact details, it appears millions of users have been swept up.
And it is not just the marketeers, police are also using these details for investigation.
The new-age tag is the cellphone, which lets cellular operators track you or allows a smartphone application to feed on personal details while signing up for one.
Operators know where you are because they are always determining the nearest tower to route your call, where the calls are coming from, how long it lasted and whether you are hooked to the phone. These are priceless details for sellers and advertisers who could be buying them to hawk their wares.
“Cellular operators don’t just bill you, they record your call details and sell them,” said new media expert and professor at University of Madras, Gopalan Ravindran. We know cellphone operators sweep up data, but what we still don’t know is the extent to which they go because they are not bound to make it public. This cache of data piles up in their reservoir servers for at least six months, which is enough time to analyze you.
Hearing this, you might feel violated, but most of the time tracking is done with your consent. The app-rich smartphones that shadow you everywhere are the best info-snatchers that companies and advertisers can dream of. A smartphone user is inadvertently telling what he eats where he shops, what movies he watches, and about his meetings, bank balances and travel routes.
Developers in the UK recently designed a mobility algorithm that predicts your movement and direction in a shopping region.
Experts say there is actually no solution to evade this realtime surveillance. The only way is to bin your batteries. When you sign into Foursquare, a social networking site, it updates the world on where you are. Though leading service providers refuse to reveal the exact details, it appears millions of users have been swept up.
And it is not just the marketeers, police are also using these details for investigation.
Arun
Janardhanan | STOI120805
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