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Contribution Details
| Type | Conference Presentation |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Identifying, Tracking and Tracing: From Geographic Space to Cyberspace and Back |
| Organization Unit | |
| Authors |
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| Presentation Type | paper |
| Item Subtype | Original Work |
| Refereed | No |
| Status | Published in final form |
| Language |
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| Event Title | PACITA 2013, The European Technology Assessment Conference: Technology Assessment and Policy Areas of Great Transitions |
| Event Type | conference |
| Event Location | Prague, Czech Republic |
| Event Start Date | March 13 - 2013 |
| Event End Date | March 15 - 2013 |
| Abstract Text | An increasing amount of technologies are being used that involve information on the location of objects or persons. In addition to the widely known geolocation by satellite via GPS, today at least 12 more technologies are being used that make it possible to determine the location of devices, and indirectly that of their users, such as GSM/UMTS, WLAN, RFID, optical or even acoustical technologies (for details see Hilty et al., 2012). This may happen in real time (tracking) or after a delay depending on the technology (tracing); it may happen with a degree of precision ranging from a few kilometers to a few centimeters, and either with or without the knowledge of the persons affected. The mix of technologies in use today bears greater privacy risks than the relatively manageable RFID technology, which created a public debate some years ago (Oertel et al., 2005). Because tracking and tracing can be technically implemented with increasing convenience and decreasing cost, more and more location data are being generated and stored. When the results of many positioning processes are combined, movement profiles, or even relationship profiles, can be done on persons. In addition to navigation, there are numerous other application areas of localization technologies: location-based services, micromarketing, calculation of fees and insurance premiums, surveillance of individuals (for health reasons or in law enforcement), emergency missions, documentation, and forensic evidence. Localization technologies offer many societal opportunities, e.g. for promoting public transportation (easier to find connections and to pay for them), for emergency and rescue operations, for personal security and orientation at unfamiliar locations, for meeting friends and perhaps even for making friends among strangers. They may even provide a technological basis for the vision of a sustainable information society that has been around for a decade (Dompke et al., 2004; Som et al., 2009). However, as localization technologies become more readily accepted, society is becoming more dependent on them. They are becoming new critical infrastructures the malfunctioning or collapse of which can have far-reaching consequences comparable with a breakdown of the telephone network. Manipulated localization information may have even more serious consequences than a lack of information, because it can misguide vehicles, persons and freight. |
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