Tracking Device Anyone?

[Jedi Master Sar Sha]

Out of curiosity I looked up tracking tech to see how popular micro-chipping had become *mostly for pets*, but as I searched I was surprised to find a bit more...unorthodox applications of such tools. Which is your preference? A collar or chip?

Sutter Calif.-Brittan Elementary School made a policy that requires all of its students to wear a radio tracking device as a "safety" measure.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6942751/


Rhode Island's Middletown School District micro-chips its students.
www.naturalnews.com/023445.html


Even jobs are now thinking about chipping airport staff.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keo2TR1Zouw

Thoughts anyone? I personally think this is stepping over personal bounties; I'm quite content not having a tracking device on my person.

[nighthawk]

I`m quite content without one, thanks much...

I understand the need and all....but if your skipping work and at the golf course, how would that work out

[Cy Skywalker]

I'd gripe if I had to wear a tracking device to school. That's a bit paranoid as far as safety measures go. And just plain creepy.

[surfersquid]

nighthawk: I think the idea there is that you're not supposed to be skipping work.

I think the real problem here is that we live in such a society where tracking devices are a viable option due to safety concerns.

Although I do think that in some cases, tracking chips might actually help. Like, imagine how useful they'd be implanted in prison inmates--would save the police a lot of trouble when there's a jailbreak. It could have great use for the military as well; cut down a lot on MIAs, I bet. (And, really, any dangerous job where you could get lost or something.)

[Jedi Master Sar Sha]

Jan 7, 2010 11:52:57 GMT -5 surfersquid said:

I think the real problem here is that we live in such a society where tracking devices are a viable option due to safety concerns.

Although I do think that in some cases, tracking chips might actually help. Like, imagine how useful they'd be implanted in prison inmates--would save the police a lot of trouble when there's a jailbreak. It could have great use for the military as well; cut down a lot on MIAs, I bet. (And, really, any dangerous job where you could get lost or something.)

Like any new tech that gives people power to observe others, its is a tool that has the potential for tremendous good or terrible abuse. The fact the tracking is being use on school children rather than, as you've stated surfersquid, people who could potentially cause harm if they disappeared back into the main population makes me look at it negatively.

If the issue is truly safety and you're really having that much trouble insuring your students are under responsible supervision, than that just tells me you had better sit down with your staff and improve the root problem. ..unobservant and unaware teachers! The technology is not going to protect children from potential kidnappers any more than a camera stationed at a stop light will prevent a car wreck for speeding. So in terms of how its being applied in the realm of education, I find it a waste of money and an invasion of privacy.

When looking at a military stand point, I've mixed feelings. In a hospital situation, it could very well save lives. A quick scan to the hand or neck would give field hospitals the patient's medical history instantly, but at the same time I question how other people will used that information against our soldiers. Dog tags list only so much information. Its limited in what can be interpreted from it, but what if that individual's whole history is read by an enemy? Or the tracking system hacked into and used to find soldiers in the field?

Every advantage has a disadvantage and though it may sound like I'm very pessimistic and overly suspicious of the new technology, understand some of the worst things in history have been done with the best intentions. People in general, more often than not, abuse power and its the people using the technology that I question.

So yes, I think this could be a very helpful tool in the future.And yes, I see that it has its uses, but I also am watching it like a hawk for possible abuse of said tools.

[surfersquid]

Oh, humanity will find a way to abuse anything that falls into their grubby little mitts, rest assured in that. Just look at what happened to the concept of television. Or the Internet. Or the rain forests.