Overlapping technologies track individuals and share information - The Boston Globe

A timely reality check

Still, he is among a growing number of academics and tech nologists who are starting to raise concerns about what’s being called “location privacy,’’ the idea that the proliferation of mobile devices, smart cards, tracking technologies, and Internet databases is creating an environment in which citizens are under a constant threat of surveillance. As overlapping technologies and systems start sharing this information, location privacy advocates say, it will become easier for governments, employers, and interested parties to track an individual’s everyday movements.

The author of a recently published paper on the subject for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil liberties group, Blumberg is not surprised that most citizens are not alarmed by, or even aware of, issues relating to location privacy.

Overlapping technologies track individuals and share information - The Boston Globe