Unwarranted Cell Phone Tracking?

            When cell phones first came out, they idea of wirelessly talking to people was revolutionary.  Cell phones were very large, bulky and weighed an extraordinary amount.  Then, phones came out with SMS text messaging.  The ability to send text messages wirelessly led towards a whole new trend of not only condensed messages but condensed thoughts.  Later, the trend with mobile phones led toward email and functions such as games and calendars.  Recently, the trend in mobile devices has let to advanced functions such as Internet browsing and GPS navigation.

            The use of a phone’s GPS by external parties such as the police or the cell phone company is a topic of conflict.  Many of us use our GPS to check in on Facebook, Foursquare or for geo-tagging but we don’t realize that everywhere we go, we can be tracked.  In some instances, people’s phones can actually be tracked

Recently, in the U.S. Court ofAppeals’ case of U.S. v. Skinner, the court ruled that pre-paid phones can be tracked without a warrant.  Many people believe this is a complete invasion of privacy.  Unlike in the movies, not everyone who uses a prepaid cell phone is a drug lord or assassin.  Prepaid cell phones usually a less expensive solution compared to a monthly plan.  In the same case, the government also ruled that a prepaid phone can be tracked even if the person who purchased the phone does not know that it was GPS. 

People often think that this is an over reach of the government’s constitutional power.  Right now in New York City, we can see a similar situation of the government reaching further into people’s lives than some people would like.  The mayor of New York City recently banned the sale of fountain soda over sixteen ounces.  The thinking is that the obesity rates are too high and will be lowered if people cannot buy large drinks.  People view this the same way as cell phone tracking.  Most people do not like the idea of having the amount of soda they can buy limited, however many people agree that there is a chance it could help lower the obesity rate.  The same thing applies with cell phones, nobody wants to have their location tracked but tracking cell phones could help catch criminals such as in the above-cited article.  In this case, through the tracking of prepaid cell phones, the authorities detained drug related criminals and seize 1100 pounds of marijuana. 

With modern day technology, tracking such as this gets easier and easier.  The technological resources at the disposal of the government are constantly increasing.  People are also allowing more invasion by using sharing their locations on Facebook and other online sites.  This makes you wonder what the future holds in terms of location tracking.  Will the government be tracking our computers via GPS soon?  So much has changed in the last ten years that there is no way of knowing where we will be ten years from now.