Thursday, April 11, 2013

Week 10 Post 2: Privacy

From a recent (maybe already outdated in the context of technology) article published on FierceWireless, it is said that Verizon has patented a mobile surveillance system that could track children and elderly. It really reminds me of class materials mentioned on Monday (cons of wireless devices) – despite the convenience it brings, money it saves, etc., it seems like there are some areas that the current system fails to address, such as potential privacy issues. Esp when telecommunication companies have a name for making customers sign things they are not aware of, I wonder how companies are gonna make use of such great amount of information collected. I mean, it's pretty clear that in the near future everybody will have at least 1 smartphone, right? It also really makes me wonder if relevant legislation / laws could be written in time because it seems to me that the legal system fails to keep up with the current U.S. patent system. What if a company / individual patents something that is found to be illegal later on?

Anyhow, more about the patent itself, according to the article.

Verizon filed the patent application on Sept. 2, 2011 (another demonstration of potential time costs incurred, which we have probably seen so many times already), but it was published last month (March, 2013). In the filing, Verizon details a mobile surveillance system, which includes wearable wireless devices, designed to transmit data wirelessly about a dangerous event happening to the user of the system or to send that user an alert about some kind of emergency event. Essentially, "one or more discrete user-wearable devices" could capture still images and video about what is going on around the user, and then send that data out.

Sounds smart and useful, but will we see it as a product soon? Nobody knows. The filing does not indicate whether the technology has been commercialized or for what market it might be used. According to the reporter, Verizon does a great deal of work with law enforcement agencies and so it may be designed for them and not for consumers.
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3 comments:

  1. Jon CheeApril 11, 2013 at 2:44 PM

    I definitely share the same sentiment in that technology is moving much faster than the legal system. I'd hope that if there was an egregious violation of privacy, the legal framework would pick up the pace to address it, but in terms of this technology, it's a toss up in my opinion. I guess we will only see how it is used in the future.

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  2. JessicaApril 14, 2013 at 7:41 PM

    I could see Verizon coming under a huge amount of criticism for the use of this patented system. The patent itself is just a description of the process but I agree that it could lead to some big issues if the company fails to implement it in an ethical way.

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  3. SimonApril 14, 2013 at 8:08 PM

    I think in this age of transparency, privacy will become more and more of an issue, especially to those who have no grown up with this type of unprecedented tracking technology. Just like the Target case, where Target predicted a pregnancy before the father of the pregnant girl knew about it, these technologies bring incredible detailed personal information to companies in order to cater their sales to the consumer. I think overall, more openness will be a good thing, although there will always been extreme examples. If anything, I hope that patents and privacy issues do not get in the way of innovation, though there is definitely a balance to be struck.

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