Privacy is not a concern when tracking materials and other assets. But that is not the case when it comes to monitoring the whereabouts of people. Government often creates civil liberties concerns any time it proposes combining location-aware and personal identification technologies. That already is a concern with the Real ID Act.
“The Real ID Act calls for making sure every state ID document, such as the driver’s license, is machine-readable and has a biometric identifier,” said Marc Songini, senior analyst at Nucleus Research. “It’s feared that this requirement will eventually lead to the mandating of RFID technology to be placed in each license,” he said, which would make it easy for law enforcement officials to monitor people’s whereabouts.
Agencies officials and vendors who sell location-aware technologies say privacy can become an issue during the deployment of specific applications if they involve identity cards or systems to track assets such as government vehicles.
“One of the hurdles that many organizations face when they deploy mobile resource management systems [are] privacy issues,” said Brian Varano, senior market analyst at location-aware vendor TruePosition.
Many employees object to being monitored. However, some organizations can overcome those objections through good communication. For instance, some agencies show employees the kind of location-based data their managers or dispatchers will see. “This education can help alleviate fear or misconceptions,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder of TeleNav, which develops location-aware solutions.
Agencies can gain employee trust by explaining the benefits of reliable location-based data. “GPS tracking can and has protected employees from false accusations,” Dhanani said. “For instance, it has helped prove cases where drivers have been falsely accused of speeding or poor driving or even hit-and-runs.”
— Jennifer McAdams
A comparison of 3 wireless options
Some location-aware applications require particular wireless capabilities. Others have more flexible requirements. Here is an overview of the options.
Radio-Frequency Identification
How it works: Small, inexpensive electronic tags affixed to items or identity cards use radio signals to communicate with reader base stations and server-based tracking software.
Applications: They include tracking large numbers of assets and people via logistics systems and managing fleets, battlefield deployments
and identity cards.
Advantages: These tags are inexpensive and can track a large volume
of items. Their location accuracy can be within one foot of an object.
Disadvantages: It has limited radio range and requires many readers to
serve large areas.
Cellular/Global Positioning System
How it works: Devices with integrated GPS capabilities generate location data and exchange it with server applications via cellular data networks.
Applications: They include tracking unmanned ground and air vehicles for the Defense Department, managing field deployments of emergency responders, collecting mobile data, and distributing location-tailored alerts.
Advantages: It makes use of cellular networks to provide extensive coverage areas. Multipurpose devices support voice and two-way data
transmissions.
Disadvantages: Cellular coverage can be inconsistent or unavailable in some areas, and data transmission performance can vary.
Wi-Fi
How it works: Server-based tracking software works with standard Wi-Fi 802.11 wireless local-area networks (WLANs) to locate computers or other assets that have small electronic Wi-Fi tags affixed to them.
Applications: They include tracking assets and people and delivering location-sensitive messages.
Advantages: It uses existing investments in WLAN infrastructure.
Disadvantages: Its radio signals have a limited range and are less precise than RFID for pinpointing locations.
— Jennifer McAdams
Thanks to location-aware technologies, state prosecutors might go to court carrying legal documents labeled with radio frequency identification tags, and no one back at the office would have to wonder what happened to those files.
RFID is one of several location-aware technologies that government officials are beginning to use in combination with text data to improve administrative operations, prevent fraud or implement new homeland security measures.
In addition to RFID, other location-aware technologies include Global Positioning System (GPS), cellular and Wi-Fi local-area network (LAN) options. They allow officials to monitor the whereabouts of just about anything that moves. When warfighters carry wireless communication devices, sophisticated systems that rely in part on Wi-Fi connections can track their movements. Cell phones and other devices equipped with GPS capabilities can help government officials allocate resources during crises.
The pervasiveness of mobile communications and the maturity of location-aware technologies have generated a wave of new civilian and military applications. But a dramatic drop in the technologies’ cost has also contributed to the growth. The price of RFID tags has fallen in three years from $2 per unit to today’s rate of about 20 cents. That price drop makes a huge difference for agencies interested in large deployments, such as the one under way at the Florida State Attorney’s Office, which wants to outfit about 125,000 criminal case files with RFID.
GPS prices have decreased, too. It now costs less than $2 to add GPS capability to a cell phone.
“All cellular devices in the very near future will have GPS capability built in,” said Dennis Bodson, director of telecommunications and sensor systems at the Institute for Defense and Homeland Security (IDHS), a research and development organization made up of representatives from government, industry and academia.
“This can be used as a primary means of position location, which will be critical to first responders.”
The primary location-aware infrastructure options are RFID, cellular/GPS and Wi-Fi.
RFID RFID relies on simple tags, or transponders, affixed to objects. RFID infrastructures use strategically placed antennas and radio waves to track the location of RFID tags within buildings, for example. In 2004, the State Attorney’s Office in Florida canceled plans to use bar coding to track criminal files, which were becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Instead, the office implemented an RFID system using paper-thin 1-inch by 4-inch RFID tags affixed to file folders. It tagged 18,000 felony files, which officials can track as they move those files to different locations in the office’s three-story building and in and out of local courthouses.
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