In Verizon's defense! -- Re: VERIZON offers this too: Warning: AT&T's New "Spouse Stalking" Cell Service

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: April 15, 2009 5:07:29 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: In Verizon's defense! -- Re: [IP] VERIZON offers this too:   
Warning: AT&T's New "Spouse Stalking" Cell Service


Dave,

I have to come to Verizon's defense on this.  Assuming that we're
talking about the same thing, the Verizon tracking service that Peter
is referring to is very different from the new AT&T service that can
be so easily abused for stalking.

In particular, as discussed at:

http://support.vzw.com/faqs/Chaperone/faq_chaperone.html#item25

Verizon's service uses special phones, and they give an obvious
visible indication every time that a location track is in progress.

This is very different from AT&T's FamilyMap, which tracks silently
for a month after a single notification attempt, and apparently does
so with virtually any non-pre-pay cell phone.

There is nothing inherently evil about location-based mobile
applications -- the ones I have on my G1 are great and I have total
control over how and when they're used.  But implementation details
matter tremendously when designing such systems.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
  for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: LW1

- - -

On 04/15 16:34, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Peter Jensen" <peter () peterjensen com>
> Date: April 15, 2009 2:44:24 PM EDT
> To: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] VERIZON offers this too:  Warning: AT&T's New  
> "Spouse
> Stalking" Cell Service
>
> I was purchasing a new phone at a Verizon store two days ago, and
> overheard the salesman offering this tracking (i.e. stalking)  
> service to
> a customer.  A "Parent" and "Child" phone are set up and initialized
> that way.
>
> > Called "FamilyMap" ( http://www.att.com/familymap ), the service
> > allows the account owner to track the location of other cell phones  
> > in
> > the account over the Internet or on their own cell phones.  While  
> > this
> > concept isn't particularly new, the manner of implementation that  
> > AT&T
> > has chosen for this service is quite alarming.
> >
> > Rather than following the conventional procedure of requiring
> > confirmation from a cell phone that its user wishes to permit
> > tracking, FamilyMap allows for the activation of tracking based  
> > solely
> > at the discretion of the account owner.
>
> From what I overheard, the Verizon phones do not require any further
> permission to be used in this manner.  That is specifically what the
> salesman was offering the customer.
>
> Peter Jensen
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
> RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
> Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com