Yes, perhaps free, community-operated p2p wifi networks could replace the monolithic paid cellular networks. It might take a long time before this would happen though.
Why not eliminate the possibility of something pretending to be a base station to a number of nodes in the immediate area? With a mesh network, a takeover of an area by a single device may be less likely. Still, there would be a chance of one or more of the nodes causing mischief, and if multiple nodes in an area are compromised that could certainly be an even greater issue. So, direct point-to-point communication is still more preferable.
The linked article talks of "forcing" carriers into this.
The "trueposition.com" web site makes it clear that they ship their hardware ("TruePosition Location Measurement Units") ostensibly for 9-1-1-from-mobile purposes.
For that reason (and others) it seems to me extremely likely that carriers don't need to be forced to support mass tracking at all. It's already there or easily slipped in. (The TruePosition platform does not rely exclusively on the Location Measurement Units.)
A couple examples of how such a universal surveillance system might be used:
big brother could identify the people who meet with known peace activists or political rivals, find their meeting places, and disrupt meetings or capture participants. They could track a target user until he might travel to a less populated area, then dispatch someone or something to capture or kill him.
In many countries, simply posting an article against the government / regime as I might do could put me at risk of persecution. If I ever turn my phone on at all, I am adding to my location history in these systems. These systems operate by tracking _everyone_ who uses a cell phone, and movement history is recorded for everyone by default.
The people committing surveillance have access to information about my family, friends, favorite restaurant, places of business, whether I have ever masturbated in a public rest-room, the hours of the day when I am awake, and when and how I travel; and the same information is available for every other mobile phone user.
Oh - he drives to work on the freeway and parks his car here, so let's put a bomb in it. I feel it's not an acceptable risk to publish or allow people, especially government agencies, to view my location history. Some people do already give this information to Google and/or Apple. I'm not too paranoid but I think they must be ignorant or crazy to do that.
In the last ten years, our governments (Australia, UK and USA) have committed acts of war which I strongly oppose. If military conscription were introduced again, I would not cooperate. I don't want the authorities - which may not always be benevolent - to have such a very great power over me which comes from knowing my every move and my every contact.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 27.8 ms ] threadThe "trueposition.com" web site makes it clear that they ship their hardware ("TruePosition Location Measurement Units") ostensibly for 9-1-1-from-mobile purposes.
For that reason (and others) it seems to me extremely likely that carriers don't need to be forced to support mass tracking at all. It's already there or easily slipped in. (The TruePosition platform does not rely exclusively on the Location Measurement Units.)
Heh.... This merits looking into:
http://www.trueposition.com/web/guest/press-releases?p_p_id=...
Here (about that):
http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/23/iphone-congress-mobile-tech...
big brother could identify the people who meet with known peace activists or political rivals, find their meeting places, and disrupt meetings or capture participants. They could track a target user until he might travel to a less populated area, then dispatch someone or something to capture or kill him.
The people committing surveillance have access to information about my family, friends, favorite restaurant, places of business, whether I have ever masturbated in a public rest-room, the hours of the day when I am awake, and when and how I travel; and the same information is available for every other mobile phone user.
Oh - he drives to work on the freeway and parks his car here, so let's put a bomb in it. I feel it's not an acceptable risk to publish or allow people, especially government agencies, to view my location history. Some people do already give this information to Google and/or Apple. I'm not too paranoid but I think they must be ignorant or crazy to do that.
In the last ten years, our governments (Australia, UK and USA) have committed acts of war which I strongly oppose. If military conscription were introduced again, I would not cooperate. I don't want the authorities - which may not always be benevolent - to have such a very great power over me which comes from knowing my every move and my every contact.