Published via Inbox: 2013-05-03 00:23:24
Some industry experts say consumers should have the right to modify their phones’ identification features to avoid being tracked.The right to change the identification is a “pro-privacy measure,” said Seth Schoen, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology-oriented civil liberties group in San Francisco.
Some law enforcement authorities, though, say there is a bigger issue — that carriers and handset makers have little incentive to fix the problem.“The carriers are not innocent in this whole game. They are making profit off this,” said Cathy L. Lanier, chief of the police department of the District of Columbia, where a record 1,829 cellphones were taken in robberies last year.
My Two Cents
I started reading this article by the NY Times thinking that it's obvious that we should be able to track cell phones and shut them off or wipe them remotely. Then I finally get to the punch line and consumer's have just as much incentives to go private as anyone. Oh the NY Times always thinks that they have it just right. The cell phones co's are trying to make another buck. Knowing how liberal the NY Times is, I can't believe they aren't all over the privacy angle. My goodness don't certain issues make strange bedfellow. Most of the time the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the NY Times are going to be aligned. It really seems that chastising wireless telco's as gouging customers is an odd time to split from a privacy issue for us consumers. Bad call NY Times. I say privacy trumps this micro-cottage industry of modern day pickpockets trying to steal cell phones. That is until some hairball jacks my phone while I am playing Words with Friends.
