The BBC has an article discusses a company producing a technology that allows people to track others with a cell phone. The short of it, is that the technology uses the motion of the cell phone accelerometers to track even small movements with the built-in GPS of the phone. For those of you not in the know, GPS is used for positional tracking and is pretty accurate down to a couple feet at least. Interestingly, I discovered how accurate the GPS was with my iphone (company purchased, I wouldn’t ever buy one — I prefer the Android platform). I needed to get to a restaurant and I’d forgotten to write down the address, but I remembered the street. With a neato keen application called “Around Me” I was able to track my distance to the door of the restaurant within at least 5 feet. How incredibly useful!
Now imagine that your boss can see with a pretty precise degree where you are, and with this new technology in the mobile phone from KDDI, you’ll be comforted by the fact that your employer (or snooping wife/stalker/private investigator/police/friendly neighborhood government agent) will know if you’re actively moving around or standing still while you’re out of sight and where you might be doing it. I really don’t think I’d be too terribly happy if my employer started micromanaging my time by ensuring that i was being productive based solely on whether my phone is moving about enough for his/her standards.
“Hmm, prata has gone over his 3 minute time limit on bathroom privileges. We’ll have to write him up and remove one of his bathroom breaks to make up for the lost productivity.”
Nevermind I was spending those minutes actually at my desk and working, but I dropped my phone on my way from or to the bathroom. Or what if I leave my phone at my desk, but have done 6 tickets and rectified numerous problems. I sense lots of signing discussions with the higher ups. Yeah. I don’t like this technology at all.
Why is it I know no girls that enjoy wearing skirts like this? Sad.
