Chapter 0, Problem 15SI

Explanation of Solution

“No”, it is neither ethical nor legal to broadcast the phone’s location to other parties or strangers without the consent of the consumer.

Introduction to GPS (Global Positional System):

The Global Positioning System termed as GPS, uses satellites to determine the current physical location.

It was originally created by the U.S. Department of Defense to improve military navigation. It is now available for consumer and used in cars, smartcards, handheld computers, and cell phones.

GPS helps to search a desired location for specific landmarks, such as restaurants and gas stations within a specific radius to current location. It also provides convenient turn-by-turn driving instructions to the destination.

Privacy invasion by smartphones due to location sharing:

This technology brings value to its users. However, it has caused a significant decrease in privacy. A combination of GPS data and cell tower triangulation can reveal the current location of smartphone.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “Location information collected by cellphone companies can provide an extraordinarily invasive glimpse into the private lives of cellphone users.”

Mobile phone companies have the ability to exploit the information and get an extraordinary insight into the private lives of their mobile customers. Some companies sell this information to other companies with an interest to get personal data, choices and buying patterns.

Unwanted tracing and sharing personal location can lead to fraud, hindrance in social life and several other security concerns for famous personalities and others.

Hackers can break into servers and steal usernames, email addresses, phone numbers and hashed passwords of authorized lawmakers, investigation agents or secure information of national advisors and users.

Mobiles numbers, credit card details, and email addresses can be compromised along with shared location because the companies gather all the data along with location.

Criminal and miscreants can get vital information of users and can abuse the person, mentally and financially. The life of users can also be at stake if data gets leaked to terrorist organizations.