Rocky Mountain Tracking » GPS Teen Tracking

Mumbai Pothole App is Unsuccessful

Marisa O'Connor — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:04:04 +0000

Road maintenance seems to be a problem all over the world. In Mumbai, officials have developed an app to enlist the public’s help. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) teamed with a private developing firm, called Probity Soft, to create a web and mobile application that would allow citizens to report potholes and other road condition problems directly to agency in charge of making road repairs. The app uses GPS location data of smart phones to log the exact location of the problem. Unfortunately, a month after its launch, there have been zero reports submitted.

The app was launched on November 5, 2011, and since then, no one has reported any problems with their roads. The GPS location information and photo is sent from the app to the appropriate officials, who are then bound to a public deadline to fix the problem. Officials know that the lack of response is not from lack of need for repairs, so many are struggling to find out why the program is failing.

One of many theories, include the fact that the app is only available for Android smart phones. In order to make a report, users have to be able to afford the expensive mobile phones. Citizens without an Android phone can still write in complaints, but will not be able to send a photo of the problem with exact GPS location data.

There are a few other theories regarding the lack of involvement in this new program. Some are concerned that the root of the problem is from limited exposure. “The link to the website was not being displayed on the official BMC website. People probably were not aware of it,” said Shantanu Kulkarni, director of Probity Soft. Others blame the problem on lack of training. “We have been trained and distributed handsets to engineers from only five wards in Zone 1. We are planning to finnish the process in the next few weeks. Citizens can still go ahead and use the app to complain about bad roads,” explained Satish Badwe, chief engineer of roads.

Photo Courtesy of MSVG via Flickr Creative Commons

GPS Saves Lives in Hawaii and Beyond

John Chapman — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:00:21 +0000

The power of GPS satellites to save lives and help those in need seems to be growing every day. In the Koolau mountains in O’ahu, Hawaii, two hikers were recently rescued after getting lost on a hike.

The father and soon hiking team got lost on a trail. The son’s wife called firefighters, who then checked a GPS on their cell phone. Though the battery was low and the phone eventually died, firefighters used that fleeting moment of cell phone power and read their location on the GPS. Once that was done, they’d determined that the hikers were going in the wrong direction, actually going up the mountain.

Mother Nature is a stern taskmaster, and there’s nothing more frightening than getting lost on a hiking trail during a simple pleasure hike. However, with the implementation of GPS technologies on smart phones, adding safety and security to an afternoon hike is becoming easier.

As GPS technology becomes more commonplace, there are definitely advantages to individuals who want to be tracked voluntarily. In the case of those two hikers in Hawaii, their lives were saved. The world is quickly becoming a place where such hiking accidents don’t have to become tragedies. If it weren’t for the simple, easy use of GPS technology and cell phones, those hikers may have died.

If you’re going on a hike, the simple addition of a GPS or smart phone is now becoming a packing essential. There’s more to smart phones than texting and Angry Birds—these phones open up a whole new world of GPS technology that not only gets you where you need to go more quickly, but allows for satellite tracking in the event you get off the trail during the big hike. So what’s the moral of the story? Don’t go hiking without a GPS. It may save your life.

Parent Develops App to Monitor Teen Texting

Marisa O'Connor — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:49:02 +0000

The teenage years are notoriously difficult for families. Children are becoming adults and the power dynamics of the household begin to change. It is an impressionable time, as teens begin to explore the adult world they are about to enter. There isn’t much parents can do to protect their growing children from potentially dangerous topics, like sex, alcohol and drugs. A father in Maryland’s solution was to develop an app, that allows him to monitor keywords within text messages sent to his teenagers’ phones, called Code9.

Code9 was developed by Chet Thaker, and named after texting slang teens use to let their friends know when a parent is watching. “Parents have a way of being notified when a specific word or text is used,” explained Chet Thaker. It is up to the parent to insert keywords, like sex, alcohol and other similar phrases that they want to be notified if they’re teen is using. “I found them using inappropriate language in response to specific events that may have happened,” Thaker said. The application also implements GPS tracking, to allow parents to see where their teen’s phones, and likely the teens themselves, have been throughout the day.

GPS tracking and keyword monitoring may very well protect teens from their foul-language-using peers, but without solid communication between parent and child, it is entirely too easy for teens to work around the app. If teens want to go somewhere without their parents monitoring them with GPS tracking, they could easily leave the phone somewhere acceptable to their parents. It would also be easy for teens to create a new code for the selected keywords, and remain under their nosy parent’s radar.

“The way we parent is we trust our children. We talk to them about what’s right, what’s appropriate, what’s inappropriate to send,” explained Ann Arundel County resident and mother of four, Elaine Harrison. The best way to protect teens from the dangers they’re not prepared for, is by creating a safe environment at home, where they can ask questions and express concerns. “The bigger picture is you have to continue dialogue with your children about what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate,” offers Harrison.

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor

Photo Courtesy of ehecatzin through Creative Commons

Unique Tracking Program Gives Insurance Discounts

Admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:00:12 +0000

GPS tracking devices might soon be lowering your car insurance premiums. A unique new program gives a “pay-as-you-drive” spin on insurance. This new program involves a GPS tracking device being installed on the vehicle. The tracking device enables the insurance company to monitor the vehicle’s every move, giving them a pretty clear picture of the individual’s driving habits. This information can then be used by the insurance provider to determine a fair insurance premium.
Good or Bad?
Many people are uncomfortable with their insurance company have such detailed information about their driving habits and travels, viewing it as an invasion of privacy.
But New Jersey software programmer Saman Javasekara embraced this new program. After installing the GPS tracking device on his vehicle, he received a 23% discount from Progressive. Like Javasekara, many people who put aside their concerns will find themselves very pleased with the discount that they receive.
How It Works
This tracking program gathers pieces of information that are particularly important to insurance companies, such as how often the vehicle is driven, the distance the vehicle is driven, and how often the driver stops suddenly. Drivers who know that their moves are being monitored will keep focused on their driving. This new tracking program encourages less frequent driving in addition to safer driving. If programs like this become popular, people will be more likely to carpool and to walk or ride a bike to close locations, which would cut down on congestion and pollution.
This tracking system uses the car’s computerized diagnostic port, so it cannot be used in cars that were made before 1996.
Although the technology is still relatively new, using a GPS tracking device in a vehicle is not a completely new concept. State Farm uses GPS tracking devices in the vehicles that they insure, but they only use the trackers for roadside assistance. They do not use the devices in any way to calculate insurance rates.

Article Written by Janice Grover

Florida: More Juvenile Offenders to be Tracked?

Admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:22:29 +0000

A new bill proposed by a Florida lawmaker would lead to a number of Florida juvenile offenders wearing GPS tracking anklets. Backers of the bill insist that tracking teens is the best way to monitor activity. Currently, many juvenile offenders in Florida already wear trackers, but the lawmakers who support this bill believe that all teens should be tracked.

As it stands, most juvenile offenders are sent to juvenile detention centers. When put behind bars, these teens are separated from parents, friends, and school. Often, teens who are placed in juvenile detention centers become repeat offenders once all traces of a normal life have been taken away.

Sentencing teen offenders to months of monitoring through GPS tracking would not force these teens to live a different life. Instead, juvenile offenders can go on living life as any teen would. The difference, of course, would be that these teens will have to wear a GPS tracking anklet for the duration of any given sentence.

The aforementioned bill suggests that each Florida county use funds gained through small fines (such as traffic fines) to fund GPS tracking programs. Presently, the bill is under review. Seemingly, tracking teens who have broken the law is a much better way of keeping these juveniles under a watchful eye without ending the course of a normal teenage life.

Article Written by Harriette Halepis

GPS Inventor Opposes Warrantless Tracking

Admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:00:04 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined forces with GPS inventor, Roger L. Easton, to speak out against warrantless GPS tracking. Easton invented the Timation Satellite Navigation System at the Naval Research Laboratory in the early 1970s and was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2006 for this revolutionary technology. The Supreme Court is set to hear a controversial case involving GPS tracking, United States v. Jones, and Easton wanted his opinion known before the ruling.

FBI agents attached a GPS device to Jones’ vehicle without his knowledge, and after their warrant expired. The team failed to get a valid warrant and tracked the suspect for a month, before arresting him on charges of drug possession and conspiracy to distribute. “This is the first case where the Supreme Court will consider automatic, persistent, passive location tracking by law enforcement,” Marcia Hofmann, EFF’s senior staff attorney, stated.

“The government can use location information over time to learn where you go to church, what sort of doctors you go to, what meetings and activities you participate in, and much more. Police should not have blanket permission to install GPS devices and collect detailed information about people’s movements over time without court review.”

The Supreme Court will hear the case in the next few months. An appeals court ruled that evidence against Jones was obtained unconstitutionally, but the government appealed that decision. “If police are allowed to plant GPS devices wherever they please, that’s essentially blanket permission for widespread, ongoing police surveillance without any court supervision,” offered Cindy Cohn, EFF’s legal director. “It’s not hard to see how that kind of leeway would be abused. We hope the Supreme Court takes a close look at how this technology works and act to protect the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans.”

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor

Search for Runaway Teens in OH Has a Happy Ending

Admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:00:31 +0000

Imagine waking up and entering your son’s room to find a note stating he has taken your vehicle, his girlfriend, some cash, and left for Florida.

For one Ohio family, this situation was a reality. Even worse: the teen, Chad Carey, was only 15 and his companion, Kelly Stanley, 14. One of their mothers turned to her cell phone for help, pinpointing the location of the teens using a GPS tracking app. They had it narrowed down to a specific intersection when the signal disappeared. Police guessed the teens had gotten smart and turned the phones off.

At this point, the police decided to turn to the public for help, something not often done for a teen runaway. Officer Bud Lytle explains, “It’s not that this one is more important than the others, but the risk of harm to the children or other people is the weighing factor.”

Basically because the pair were both inexperienced, and more importantly unlicensed, drivers planning the long drive from Ohio to Florida, the lives of other drivers were in jeopardy. Police didn’t say exactly why, but noted that they were worried about one of the teen’s mental state due to what was said in the note left behind.

Other law enforcement agencies were notified from Ohio to Florida as well. The app was able to pinpoint the exact coordinates of the teens’ location, surprisingly north of the house they ran away from, and even though they turned off their phones in attempts to elude authorities, the Ohio Highway Patrol was able to take them into custody and return them to their parents.

Article Written by Khristen Foss

Teen Tracking: Parental Concern or Privacy Breach?

Admin — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:20:33 +0000

One of the most traumatic days for any parent is the day when a teenager gets behind the wheel of a car for the first time. Almost every parent experiences worry and fear at some level for their son or daughter’s safety. Many parents are concerned about the potential injury that can be caused by other drivers around their children. But a number of parents fear that their teen’s inexperience and immaturity will turn them into the hazard. To deal with their fears that their own children may be driving poorly or recklessly, some parents use GPS technology to track the vehicles that their teens drive. This has been met with quite a bit of controversy.

One device used for parental tracking is called the Trackstick Mini GPS. This isn’t a direction-finder like a TomTom or Garmin. Instead, the Trackstick Mini sends a signal that users can use to track vehicle speed and location. The device logs movements and parents can use a computer program that plots their children’s driving on a Google Maps image. For many parents, this is a relief. It allows them to know that their son or daughter is driving safely and, if not, it gives them accurate information to correct poor driving. Parents see the Trackstick as a tool that allows them to raise their children well and ensure their children’s safety.

However, many people respond that this kind of tracking is an invasion of teens’ privacy. They call the Trackstick Mini “a spy device” and claim that teenagers deserve privacy away from their parents’ watchful eyes. They sometimes argue that a parent and teen relationship should be governed by trust, not by spying. Opponents sometimes admit that such tracking would be helpful, but they believe that privacy concerns trump safety.

People on both sides of this debate offer powerful arguments for their cases. Opponents of the Trackstick decry “secret spying,” while those in favor proclaim its safety benefits. Many parents are using this device with a balanced perspective: they make sure their teens know about the tracking device and keep their trust by not secretly spying on them. Of course, the bottom line for this debate is that every home is different. This should not be settled by laws and regulations, but by allowing each family to work together and decide what works best in their own home.

Article Written by Mark Rammel

Tracking Your Teen: Right or Wrong?

Admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:22:01 +0000

In the midst of soaring crime rates and increasing peer pressure, parents are ready to take extreme action, even if it means using GPS tracking to keep an eye on their teens. But, do parents really have the right to track their teens? How far can you go before it becomes an invasion of privacy?

While most parents would agree that with increasing age comes a measure of responsibility, letting go of oversight is a hard pill to swallow. Shouldn’t a parent know where his son has gone? Isn’t it reasonable to know who he’s with? For parents with responsible teens the question is not so much whether the child is trustworthy, but whether her friends will lead her astray. No matter what the case, the general consensus among parents is that protecting their loved ones is of greater importance than exclusive privacy.

Naturally, teenagers tend to disagree. Many feel that they deserve a level of independence following their 13th birthday. After all, they have spent their childhood catering to parental authority. Why shouldn’t they have a say in where they go and what they do? Certainly, this position is understandable. Every adult can look back on his teen years and remember that feeling. On the other hand, we can all remember our parents breathing down our necks, too.

GPS tracking devices are no longer cumbersome contraptions. A tracker can be as small as a pager, and almost entirely undetectable on a vehicle. Parents who are deeply concerned for their teens’ safety can now effectively track them with these modern devices. Would you consider tracking your teen?

Article Written by Janice Grover

Texas Schools Tracking Kids With GPS Tracking Device

Admin — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:46:56 +0000

A San Antonio company is producing devices that will help make sure that kids do not cut class. The devices will track the students during a six-week time period, providing information about their whereabouts to their parents and school system. Parental permission is required for involvement in the program.

“One time, I was coming to school and I got a text message saying, ‘Your monitor isn’t showing up at school; where are you at?’” one student, Joshua Kim, told the San Antonio Times. San Antonio school districts hopes that the GPS tracking program will not only teach kids “responsibility” but will also raise money for the school districts. Thanks to the GPS tracking program, students are showing up to class 97% of the time — a step in the right direction for a school district that has been plagued by truancy.

Texas does not pay the district if a child does not attend class. Therefore, the district has a different interest than purely instilling responsibility in the kids. While trying to get children to attend class more often through GPS tracking systems is ostensibly well-intentioned, one cannot overlook the fact that money is involved. What do you think? Cynical money-ploy? Or well-intentioned social engineering?

Article Written by Greg Minton