Autonomous vehicles; police, insurers and government

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

Shutting off the GPS will make all apps that use it not work...

And so? There are only a small percentage of apps (mapping/tracking stuff, basically) that need GPS. FTM, you can simply turn off the phone/remove the battery/leave it at home if you don't care to be tracked. And of course a certain degree of tracking is inherent to any cell phone, since the signal can/has to be triangulated by the nearest towers.

For a GPS built into a car, it would be pretty simple for the technically inclined to disconnect the antenna, and feed in signals showing it to be anywhere on Earth - or even in orbit :-)

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

For a GPS built into a car, it would be pretty simple for the technically inclined to disconnect the antenna, and feed in signals showing it to be anywhere on Earth - or even in orbit :-)

...a process called "spoofing..."

[TheEnemy]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

And so? There are only a small percentage of apps (mapping/tracking stuff, basically) that need GPS. FTM, you can simply turn off the phone/remove the battery/leave it at home if you don't care to be tracked. And of course a certain degree of tracking is inherent to any cell phone, since the signal can/has to be triangulated by the nearest towers.

For a GPS built into a car, it would be pretty simple for the technically inclined to disconnect the antenna, and feed in signals showing it to be anywhere on Earth - or even in orbit :-)

I made a simple and very true statement that most people are being tracked already, it doesn't matter how easy/hard it is to turn it off, its just a fact. Having an autonomous car running around which has to know where it is and where it is going isn't going to change the fact that the people riding around in them are most likely already being tracked and by more than one method, ie. credit/atm card purchases.

Largely its a choice, if you want the convenience you accept the stuff that goes along with it.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

{snip}...Largely its a choice, if you want the convenience you accept the stuff that goes along with it.

But, NOT always so, IF people don't LET it happen!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

Having an autonomous car running around which has to know where it is and where it is going...

So why does that equate to "tracking"? First, you don't absolutely need GPS to implement a self-driving car, any more than (intelligent) humans need GPS to drive. You can always go IFR (I Follow Roads :-), with a built-in map.

Second, even if you have GPS in your car (or on your phone, tablet, or whatever), the GPS itself is read-only. Only if your device is somehow programmed to transmit the position computed from the GPS signals could some other entity use it for tracking.

[Fat Charlie]

And if you have a cell phone at all, it contacts towers all the time. Otherwise every call to every cell phone would have to pass through every cell tower everywhere to make sure it actually made it to your phone.

No, the cell phone network can't reliably track exactly where you are, but they don't have to. In fact, the vagueness of the tracking works to their advantage.

[ksa8907]

If i could buy a self driving car right now, i would. I drive 60 miles one way for work. It would be incredible if i could read the news and get ready for the day on the way to work and then make phone calls on the way home. Honestly, i cant wait.

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Warrants. Riiight. Didn't that Snowden guy release a couple papers detailing exactly how much the folks we hired actually care about warrants and other legalities?

I hear from a lot of people that they don't like technology and new things or xyz whatever because they don't want their information being used.

I hate to break it to you but if someone (not necessarily the government) wants information, there are ways to get it. Ever heard of a security breach? Hell china knows as much about you and i as we know about ourselves.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

Hell china knows as much about you and i as we know about ourselves.

Nope. China (or anyone else collecting electronic information) can only know what's out there in the cybersphere, which is a) only a miniscule fraction of what there is to know; and b) mostly not relatable to me as an individual.

WRT point a, I'm always amused/puzzled/heartened by reports of jihadists &c who spend years making their beliefs & intentions public before actually doing anything. What exactly are these people using for brains? "Two people can keep a secret, if one of them is dead."

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

I hate to break it to you but if someone (not necessarily the government) wants information, there are ways to get it. Ever heard of a security breach? Hell china knows as much about you and i as we know about ourselves.

That's my point. It doesn't matter that no judge would give anyone permission to find out anything they want- lack of judicial permission isn't a barrier to crooks, cops, bureaucrats or companies.