GPS: The Pointy-Haired Boss in the Sky

GPS: The "Pointy-Haired Boss" in the Sky

A stock comic character is the conspiracy nut in the aluminum foil hat who's convinced that the government has secretly planted electronic tracking devices in everyone's head. Played to bug-eyed perfection by Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory and with somewhat more aplomb by Jeff Goldbloom in Independence Day, these characters are convinced that when the black helicopters of the New World Government swoop over the hills, the tracking devices will make it impossible to hide.

Apocalyptic images aside, even the biggest nuts have a kernel of truth. In fact, we're well on our way to a time when each of us carries a real-time tracking device: a cellular phone or other wireless device equipped with a GPS chip.

Unlike the erratic information provided to employers (and others) by credit card and cellular phone records, GPS technology is capable of providing a constant stream of data about an employee's location. It's not a perfect record of what you have been doing, of course, but if your employer knows where you have been during the course of a day, then it's possible to make some reasonable guesses about what you have been doing.

Brought to You by the Same Folks Who First Funded the Internet

The devices that enable accurate tracking of your movements are small, square satellite receivers that can be incorporated into virtually any size device, ranging from a cellular phone to an automobile. The receivers listen for radio signals transmitted by twenty-four satellites that constantly orbit the earth at a distance of 12,600 miles. Known collectively as the Global Positioning System, each of the seventeen-foot wide, one-ton satellites orbits the earth twice each day, and at any time, a receiver can hear as many as eight signals at once. Using those signals, a GPS receiver can provide you with highly accurate information regarding your location, your speed, your altitude, and the local time anywhere in the world.

The skyrocketing popularity of the GPS is due to the radio signal constantly emitted by each satellite. The signal contains two pieces of constantly updated information: the satellite's precise orbital location and a hyper-accurate time stamp. ^[11] A GPS receiver is designed to listen to the signals from the satellites. By comparing the time information in a satellite data stream to its own internal clock, the GPS receiver can calculate how far it is from the satellite transmitting the signal.

As long as the GPS receiver can hear the signal transmitted by at least three satellites, the receiver can calculate its location on earth using a process called triangulation. If the GPS receiver can hear the signal from a fourth satellite, then the receiver can also determine its altitude. Unlike FM radio or broadcast television, the GPS only functions when the receiver can "see" the satellites in orbit; thus, GPS only works outdoors, and it functions better in rural areas than in cities.

Like many of the electronic conveniences we take for granted, the GPS was originally a Defense Department project. (The military still operates the GPS system and controls the broadcast of the satellites' signals.) With the development of the atomic clock, the military realized that the superaccurate timepieces could be used to help establish locations and aid navigation on earth. In 1964, a Polaris submarine became the first vehicle on earth to establish its location by using a satellite signal.

In the early 1970s, the Defense Department began implementing the Navstar GPS, and by 1978, Rockwell International had launched ten prototype satellites. A decade later, the first of twenty-four new GPS satellites was launched, and the last one was put in orbit on June 26, 1993. As was the case with the Internet, which was originally built by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), civilian access to the GPS was originally barred. However, the companies building GPS equipment (including, not surprisingly, Rockwell) saw the commercial possibilities of the new location technology and began pressuring the Pentagon to open up the system to public use.

In an effort to limit the risk of the system being used by criminals, terrorists, and opposing armies, the Defense Department developed a two-signal system known as "selective availability." One data stream transmitted by each satellite contained the satellite's correct time and location, and one contained intentional errors. Only authorized personnel could purchase receivers capable of receiving the unadulterated signal, which allowed location calculations to within ten yards. By contrast, GPS receivers intended for civilian use could only receive the flawed signal, which meant that their accuracy was limited to a radius of about one hundred yards. ^[12]

Both the Pentagon and the Clinton administration continued to receive pressure from GPS manufacturers, mapping companies, and other commercial ventures to free up the GPS by eliminating selective availability, and on May 1, 2000, President Clinton announced that he was discontinuing it. Civilian GPS devices immediately became ten times more accurate, and analysts predicted that the GPS industry would double in size, from $8 billion per year in 2000 to $16 billion in 2003. ^[13] That estimate proved to be conservative. The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, have greatly increased interest in GPS technology, and some analysts now predict that the burgeoning industry may see annual revenues as high as $34 to $41 billion by 2006. ^[14]

For both technical and business reasons, GPS systems have concentrated first on vehicles. The Washington, D.C.-based Strategis Group estimates that by the end of 2005, as many as 17 million light trucks and cars in the United States will be equipped with devices that combine GPS and wireless technology (known collectively as "telematics"). ^[15] Cambridge-based Forrester Research goes further, estimating that by 2006, fully 80 percent of all new vehicles will be equipped with telematics devices. ^[16]

Where Have You Been and What Have You Been Doing?

Even before President Clinton ordered the unscrambling of the GPS, the ability to track vehicles was attracting enthusiastic attention from the private sector. Operating even a small fleet of vehicles is expensive, and employers are anxious to know that the vehicles are being used as efficiently as possible. Moreover, the threat of a big personal injury lawsuit is always lurking in the back of an employer's mind. Given the havoc that employees can wreak with or to company vehicles, employers are particularly interested in tracking where their employees have taken their vehicles during the course of the day and how they're using them. ^[17] Long-range trucking companies have shown the greatest interest in GPS tracking data, since the potential for lost productivity, detouring, and outright frolicking grows dramatically when an employee's workplace is 3,000 miles wide. As early as 1997, some major trucking companies were using GPS and onboard computers to track the movement of individual trucks, monitor repair schedules, and provide assistance in case of emergencies.

Over the last few years, the increased affordability and power of the GPS system has made it possible for even modest-sized businesses to track their vehicles—and their employees' movements—with amazing precision. Employers are hailing the reams of incredibly specific information that can be gathered: a log of the times a vehicle spent moving and parked; a detailed map of the vehicle's route; highly accurate mileage tallies (without the need for employee recording); the speed of a vehicle during the course of the day; increased security (some systems can record and report on the times and locations that cargo doors were opened); and the ability to provide lost drivers with accurate instructions.

A typical system is the Time Manager GPS System offered by Formetco, Inc., a Duluth, Georgia, outdoor media marketing company. The system consists of a GPS-equipped monitoring unit that is installed in a vehicle. The unit contains a memory module that records a variety of data; on a periodic basis, the memory module is swapped for a new module, and the data in the old module is downloaded into a personal computer and displayed in the Time Manager software. In a typical configuration, the Time Manager shows the number of the vehicle for which the data was recorded, the date on which each trip took place, the start and end time of each trip, the amount of time the vehicle spent moving, its maximum speed during each trip segment, the amount of time the vehicle spent idling in traffic, and the amount of time spent at each stop. The system can also be set up to monitor and record door openings, tailgate openings, boomlift operations, and more.

As one of Formetco's customers put it, "[i]t gives us peace of mind knowing where our vehicles have been and how they are being utilized." Greg Yarborough, the director of operations for Tib's Electrical Services Co., a Decatur, Georgia, electrical contracting firm, went on to add:

The GPS has helped us identify poor practices such as leaving trucks idling unnecessarily and speeding. I believe that technicians are more conscious about using their driving time wisely and eliminating unnecessary stops ....

The GPS system also keeps the technicians from taking excessive lunch breaks, taking the long way around, or just killing time riding around. We are able to check payroll to match times that the technicians are physically on the job site and the time they said they were on the job .... ^[18]

Private employers, of course, are not the only potential market for GPS systems like Time Manager. Some school systems use GPS tracking technology to make sure that none of their drivers are using the school busses to conduct personal business, like grocery shopping or errands, and in some cases, to let parents know that their children are skipping school. If a child purposely misses the bus and then claims that it never showed up, a school system can call up the GPS information for the bus in question and show the precise time that it arrived at the bus stop. Other municipalities have outfitted sanitation trucks and public works vehicles with GPS systems to monitor the effectiveness of routes and the efficiency of their employees. In Chicago, the city's snow plows are equipped with GPS systems, which enable supervisors to track plowing progress, reroute trucks to areas that need more attention, and generally oversee the process of snow removal.

Not surprisingly, if you work for a company or government agency that uses a GPS-equipped vehicle, you have relatively little control over whether your employer collects location information and what it does with that information. The most benign use of the information generated by a GPS system is simply to confirm that you've done the work you were supposed to do during the day. Less reasonable uses of the information spring to mind, however: What if you stop at Planned Parenthood on your lunch break and your supervisor wants to know if you're pregnant? Or what if your employer decides to lay you off because you stop at McDonald's for lunch two days out of three and there's concern that the cost of providing you health insurance and medical care will be increased by your weight? If you're an at-will employee, it can be very difficult to determine the reason you were terminated and even harder to show that the termination was in violation of federal or state law.

Employers unquestionably find it valuable to know where their vehicles have been during the course of a day. But increasingly, they are demonstrating a willingness to purchase and install GPS systems that are capable of giving them real-time information about where their employees are located. The ability of your boss to know where your vehicle is at any given moment is the result of the merger between two technologies: GPS and wireless communications.

OnStar™ Knows Where the Bat Cave Is

In one amusing television commercial, a dark figure swoops down out of the sky, lands lightly on the ground, and leaps into his black, jet-propelled vehicle. He notices a new set of buttons on the dashboard, including one with a light blue background, the word "On," and a small star over the "n." His butler, Alfred, gravely informs him that he's equipped the vehicle with new features to provide roadside assistance, emergency help, and directions. As the sleek, lethal-looking car roars out of the cave, the masked driver presses the "OnStar" button and a courteous voice asks, "How can I help you, Batman?"

Apparently, Alfred did not realize that he had given away the location of Batman's secret cave. In order for OnStar™ to be able to provide its services (which currently include such location-sensitive features as emergency services, stolen vehicle tracking, route support, and ride assistance), it needs to be able to locate your vehicle. It does so through a combination of a satellite and wireless technology: A GPS receiver keeps track of where the vehicle is at any given time, and the information is periodically transmitted to OnStar™ by an onboard wireless phone that uses the nation's cellular system.

The OnStar™ system, which is currently installed in 1.5 million cars on the road today, is a standard feature on various makes and models of mid-and high-end vehicles, including Acura, Buick, Cadillac, and Saab. At the request of its customers or in limited circumstances, of the police, OnStar™ can identify the location of any one of those cars. At present, the company does not keep any historical information about where each car has traveled, but there is certainly no technological impediment to doing so.

What customers get when they fork over $16.95 each month to OnStar™ for its Safety & Security program is just that—the comfort of knowing that if something goes wrong, the location information generated by the OnStar™ system can help provide assistance. As Wired magazine reported in December 2001, the OnStar™ system has some obvious benefits for law enforcement as well: When the OnStar™-equipped car of Akram Jaber was carjacked on Chicago's South Side in late September 2001, he called 911 to report the crime and then called OnStar™. A company operator called the OnStar™ unit in Jaber's vehicle, retrieved GPS information on a minute-by-minute basis, and relayed the car's location to police. The police intercepted and captured the carjackers within minutes of the commission of the crime. ^[19]

As GPS technology becomes more common, a wide variety of other services will be introduced. For instance, the car manufacturer Ford and the telecommunications company Qualcomm have formed a joint venture called Wingcast, which will offer a new service to purchasers of 2003 Fords and Nissans. Called GeoSensing, the system will automatically notify the car's owner by e-mail and/or phone if the vehicle is taken outside of a specific predefined area. Mercedes also offers a similar system, TeleAid, for its vehicles.

With the convenience of more accurate information about location and movement, however, comes matching concerns of invasions of privacy. The cost of developing and implementing telematics systems like OnStar™ or Wingcast is extremely expensive, and the companies that run them are obviously interested in finding ways to defray the cost. The information generated by a telematics system about your driving habits is potentially quite valuable, and the temptation to tap into a new revenue stream by making that information available to marketers is only going to grow.

The premise is the same as with grocery store cards—that consumers are willing to give up a certain amount of privacy in exchange for some benefit, in this case the ability to quickly request assistance if something goes wrong. Currently, OnStar™, TeleAid, and Wingcast require customers to "opt-in" to receive advertisements and special offers, which means that they will not receive unwanted advertisements from every Starbucks on their way to work. In time, however, it is likely that companies that offer telematics services will either simply market usage data or require customers to opt-in when they sign up.

Not all uses of telematics systems are going to be as benign (albeit annoying) as marketing. In the summer of 2001, James Turner, a New Haven, Connecticut, resident, sued Acme Rent-a-Car for invading his privacy. The previous fall, Turner had rented a car from Acme for a business trip down to Virginia. When Turner used his ATM card after returning the car, he was stunned to discover that Acme had withdrawn $450 from his account. What Turner had apparently overlooked was a clause in the rental contract that stated that the Acme vehicles are equipped with GPS technology, and that each time the car exceeded the company's maximum speed threshold (seventy-nine miles per hour), he would be assessed a surcharge of $150. Acme—which uses a telematics system called AirIQ—was able to show Turner on a map the three different locations where his speed exceeded seventy-nine miles per hour.

Outraged by the company's actions, Turner filed suit in small claims court in New Haven; the court deferred its decision until it obtained a ruling from the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection about whether Acme's actions constituted an unfair business practice. ^[20] In January 2002, Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a complaint against Acme, claiming that the company had no justification for its arbitrary fine of $150 per infraction. The Department of Consumer Protection agreed with the attorney general and ordered Acme to refund Turner's money, along with the twenty-seven other people the rental company had previously fined.

Nowhere to Hide: the Marriage of GPS and Personal Wireless Devices

Conceptually, it is a relatively small leap from providing location-based services to drivers to providing those same types of services to pedestrians. First, however, it was necessary to reduce the size of the GPS receiver to the point where it could comfortably be incorporated into portable devices. Thanks in large part to the impetus provided by the FCC's E-911 mandate, the functions of a GPS receiver have now been squeezed onto a microchip that can be incorporated into a wide array of consumer electronic devices.

For example, Applied Digital Solutions (which we met earlier as the developer of the RFID VeriChip) is the marketer of a product called Digital Angel, a combination watch and pager that uses GPS technology to provide location data about the wearer. The Digital Angel costs $400 per unit, plus a minimum of twenty-five dollars per month for the tracking service. In just three months, Applied Digital has signed up over 1,300 users.

A Westport, Connecticut, company, Pomals (an acronym standing for "peace of mind at light speed") is planning to introduce a hard plastic sleeve that slips over a person's cell phone, Blackberry device, or wireless PDA. Equipped with a GPS chip, the Pomals device will use the main device's wireless connectivity to constantly send location information to a map website. Subscribers to the Pomals service can log onto the website, enter a personal identification number for the GPS device, and instantly see a map showing the device's physical location. Pomals hopes to bring GPS-equipped device sleeves to market for less than $100, and charge five dollars per month for the online mapping service. It plans to release its products by the second quarter of 2003. ^[21]

But Pomals may rapidly be overtaken by developments in the wireless industry that will eliminate the need for an external, GPS-equipped sleeve. Location-based services have enormous economic potential: The research firm Allied Business Intelligence estimates that services that push information to cell phone users will generate more than $40 billion in annual revenues by 2006. ^[22] With those types of figures being tossed around, there is a tremendous incentive for cellular and electronics companies to hop on the bandwagon by incorporating GPS technologies into their handsets, Blackberries, PDAs, and so forth.

Europe and Asia are well ahead of the United States in the adoption of cellular systems, and location-specific applications are already being introduced in both regions. One example is Finder, a service introduced by the Swedish telecommunications firm Cellpoint Systems. Relying on the European technology Global System for Mobile Communications, Finder enables a cellular phone user to set up a "mobile buddy list." Once a friend's name is on your list, you can use your cellular phone to find out her current location. Your phone queries the network for the location of your friend's phone and then displays a text message, giving your friend's location in reference to a nearby landmark and distance from you. In the summer of 2002, Cellpoint announced a partnership with the Icelandic company Trackwell, which focuses on developing location-based applications. One such application is My Child Tracker, a system that allows parents to enter a password, click on a child's cell phone number, and view a map showing the location of the phone (and presumably, the child).

Defensive Measures

Remarkably enough, there are times when you might not want to be found, or when you'd just as soon not receive a sales pitch or coupon to the latest Hollywood blockbuster as you walk past a movie theater. With most wireless devices on the market today, there is one simple, straightforward way to prevent tracking: Simply turn the wireless devices off. A cell phone that is not turned on doesn't send out its brief, "Hi, I'm over here," signal to the cellular network. The same is true for wireless PDAs and laptops: No juice means no signal. In addition, some programs like AT&T's "Find Friends" come equipped with an "invisible" mode, which allows you to take advantage of location-oriented information services without letting others know where you are.

But the trend in wireless devices is clearly toward "always on, always connected" (AOAC). In the week following the 9/11 attacks, Wired magazine reported that the addition of GPS chips to cellular phones would enable cellular phone companies to locate those phones even when they are turned off. ^[23] Bluetooth technology will take this further, since it is purposely designed to facilitate the concept that "the data I want always finds me." ^[24] Each Bluetooth-enabled device will be equipped with a small radio that will listen for queries from other Bluetooth-enabled devices.

Not surprisingly, not everyone is sold on the idea of AOAC. Some people are deeply concerned about the privacy implications of carrying wireless devices that always report their location to central networks, whether they are cellular systems or office network systems. Privacy Gear, a recently founded Brooklyn company, is offering small pouches made of a fabric called Cloaktec, which is designed to prevent wireless devices from sending or receiving signals. The mobileCloak (twenty-four dollars) and the larger mCloak r5 (thirty-four dollars) are designed to hold a variety of wireless devices, from cellular phones to toll payment devices like EZ-Pass.

For employees, the main question will be the consequences of using something like the mobileCloak—or even of turning off their GPS-equipped mobile device—to hide from their boss. If a constant stream of location data is the norm in your workplace, then information gaps are going to be suspicious. Sometimes, the absence of data can be just as problematic as reams of it.

^[11]Every GPS satellite contains a cesium-based atomic clock that keeps stunningly precise time (accurate to roughly one second each 100,000 years).

^[12]The Defense Department also retains the capability in times of national emergency to introduce even more serious errors into the civilian satellite signal, reducing their accuracy to a circle with a radius of about 300 yards.

^[13]"Clinton Unscrambles GPS Signal," Reuters (May 1, 2000). Downloaded on May 4, 2000, from www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,36021,00.html.

^[14]"Terrorism Attacks Accelerate Interest in GPS Applications," SpaceDaily (December 11, 2000).

^[15]For comparison, approximately ten to fifteen million new vehicles are sold in the United States each year. Lou Hirsh, "Satellite Radio: Will Drivers Tune In?," OSOpinion.com (January 3, 2002).

^[16]Geoff Keighly, "Moving violations," Boston Globe (March 18, 2002).

^[17]Nighttime use is also an issue. While an employee's unauthorized after-hours use of a company vehicle is not likely to be within the scope of his employment, the employer is still likely to be sued if the employee causes injury. Even a successful defense can still be painfully expensive.

^[18]"GPS Testimonials," Formetco, Inc., n.d. Available online at www.formetco.com/links/testimonials.htm.

^[19]Adam L. Penenberg, "The Surveillance Society," Wired (December 2001).

^[20]Robert Lemos, "Car spy pushes privacy limit," ZDNN (June 20, 2001).

^[21]Elisa Batista, "A Kiddie GPS for the Masses?" Wired.com (October 12, 2002).

^[22]Hiawatha Bray, "Something to watch over you," Boston Globe (January 22, 2001).

^[23]Elisa Baptista, "E911 Wouldn't Help at WTC," Wired.com (September 20, 2001).

^[24]"Introduction," "Enabling Always On, Always Connected (AOAC) Computing with Bluetooth Technology," Intel Corporation, Intel Technology Journal (2d Quarter 2000).