TYT: Can Your Boss Put a Tracking Device on You?

[WhoIsNumberNone]

"Those of us trying to lose some pounds after overindulging this holiday season can get help from a slew of smartphone apps that count steps climbed and calories burned. Self-tracking has also become a way for companies to make money using your fitness data. And some experts worry that the data collected could be used against users in the long run.

At a recent Quantified Self Meetup in downtown San Francisco, technology lovers are testing homemade do-it-yourself devices on people eager to measure their mind and body."*

More employers are looking to put tracking devices on their employees. Right now, they say it's to keep track of health and exercise, but is that justifiable? Is there room for abuse and invasion of privacy? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.

[DeSwiss]

1. If the employee has a cell phone.....

...s/he already has a tracking device that an employer can use to track their movements.

- GPS turns your smartphone into you're boss' snitch.....

K&R

[AtheistCrusader]

4. That site is an issue-awareness raising gag.

The only people who can punch in your phone number and get any data on your cell phone's location, are the service provider themselves, and the police. The police used to need a warrant, not so clear if they still do anymore.


For anyone else to do it, either you have to share out that data via Latitude, or Glympse, or some other app you put on your phone yourself, or someone else has to install a clandestine tracking app on the phone without your knowledge. That app would then periodically check the on-board GPS for location, and send that info somewhere the attacker designated.

[limpyhobbler]

5. Unless it's a work phone.

At this one job, I was handed a work phone and told to carry it everywhere for a month since I was on call. Something like that they could track.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Excellent point.

I did not think about that. I'm on-call a couple weeks out of the year too.

Salary can have it's downside.

[limpyhobbler]

2. This is why right-wing so-called "Libertarians" are not real libertarians at all.

Last edited Fri Jan 4, 2013, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)

They support employers' right to tag their workers and monitor everything they do. Cenk is right it's only a matter of time before the start implanting tracking stuff under people's skin. Integrate it with your facebook/foursquare. They'll probably sell it as the patriotic thing to do. After all if you're not a terrorist, why would you object to being tracked and monitored every second of your life.

Time for left/liberal libertarians to start vocally objecting to this stuff before it gets out of hand.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Apropos of nothing.