Tracking Devices
Introduction
Nowadays tracking devices have become an important part of life of every human being: they help people to know where their laptop or cell phone or a car is, and it makes them feel safer. The technology develops and tracking devices develop along with it. Tracking devices have been integrated in every part of modern life: with the help of such devices, parents know where their children are and police officers will quicker find a prisoner who has escaped; besides, if a cell phone is lost or a car is stolen, with the help of such tracking devices a person may find them. On the other hand, there are people who think that such devices are made by governments and the military to spy on ordinary citizens. Perhaps, it will always be unknown who is right.
This paper is aimed to give a brief overview on the literature that was written on this topic. The point is that human beings strive to make everything perfect, although sometimes it goes not the way people want it. That is why tracking devices need to be perfected along with the development of modern technologies, for example, Nanotechnologies. The paper will be divided into two parts: the problem part will contain a short overview of problems that a tracking device may cause in future, or causes nowadays; the solution part will contain theoretical approaches that may solve problems that were mentioned in the first part.
Problem
In this day and age tracking devices are a necessary part of anyone’s lifestyle, some people cannot even imagine their life without them. This issue has been studied not only by scientists, but also by the representatives of military sphere; all of them were trying to find out not only the disadvantages of tracking devices, but also advantages. The point is that such devices are not perfect, which may lead to several problems. A tracking device may lose a signal, for example, or interpret the received data improperly. Besides, tracking devices are expensive and not every person may find money to buy them. However, state-of-the-art smartphones have build-in tracking devices which insure that, in case of loss, owners will find their phones. It has been already mentioned that there is a belief that governments use tracking devices to spy on their citizens. On the other hand, private providers may allow their customers to use tracking devices for knowing the whereabouts of the members of their families. However, this may lead to criminals tracking a person, hunting him or her. Those people with tracking devices integrated into their cell phones may become victims of hackers that are hunting for information and may stalk them in future. The problem is that federal authorities that use tracking devices to spy on offenders have as developed technologies as criminals do; that is why tracking devices my become the main tool in a war between criminals and authorities, while ordinary people may end up victims in that war. (Laub 10)
Tracking devices for children are ineffective as well. There are three main disadvantages of such technology:
- False belief of security. If a criminal wants to kidnap a child, he or she will do that even if a child has a tracking device. Besides, a criminal may know how to disable such a device, so parents cannot feel secure with a tracking device. Besides, teenagers who want to escape parental control will hide such a device or also disable it;
- Price. Although tracking devices become more and more popular, their price remains high, and not every family may find the necessary sum;
- Fear and mistrust. If parents give a child such a device, it may cause a child to feel mistrusted, especially a teenager. Psychologists state that those children who are monitored may feel that the whole world around them is unsafe, which may lead to developing different phobias in future. (n.a.)
Some researchers suggest that such devices violate the right given by the Fourth Amendment (Myers 10), the others argue that such devices are not useful, especially when tracking criminals. However, the main point is not to find disadvantages but to find ways to make tracking devices perfect, so people may use them without any fear. Research articles and other scientific works show that scientists do not try to find the solutions of these issues, but only argue about its imperfectness. The main aim of this project is to show that a tracking device may be perfect and people may not fear to use it since no data will be lost; this research paper is aimed to show some theoretical ways of solving the problems connected with tracking devices.
Solution
All the problems mentioned above are the main ones to be solved by the developers of tracking devices in future. The most essential problem that should be solved is the problem of protecting personal data of those citizens who use tracking devices. People buy tracking devices to feel secure; that is why such technologies should meet the expectations of customers. Protecting the channels of sending and receiving date may be the solution for tracking devices. The disadvantage of such an approach is that the price of tracking devices will increase, which means that they will be sold less. The problem is to find a solution that will satisfy both a customer and a developer. To my mind, the best solution to protect the data of customers is to develop a new secure code. Besides, this code should be developed secretly so that nobody knows about its existence, which will ensure that a criminal will not track a person.
The other way to make a tracking device perfect is to program a device on deleting all the data after a cell phone or a car is stolen. This will help to decrease the possibility that a criminal will use the data of a person. Besides, a tracking device should have more possibilities to be found, that is why a system of better connection should be developed. The main problems that have to be solved in future are data security and better connection, so it is possible to track a device even if it is far from the place where it was stolen. Besides, the methods of data collection and interpretation should become simpler, which will decrease the time needed to decode it and find where a lost property locates.
Conclusion
There are different types of tracking devices that are used in all walks of modern life. However, they are not perfect. This paper was aimed to outline the main problems that a tracking device may cause and try to find a theoretical solution of them. The main problems are:
- Data insecurity;
- Loss of signal;
- Use by governments to spy on their citizens;
- Use by criminals to spy on citizens as well;
- Ineffectiveness for children security.
There have been many articles written on this issue; however, the situation nowadays remains the same: tracking devices are expensive, although they still cannot secure people’s life. Tracking devices are used to chase criminals; on the other hand, criminals may understand how it works and create another one or disable theirs. The problem is that tracking devices have become too important in human life and even an ordinary citizen cannot imagine his or her life without such a gadget; besides, its advantages are widely advertised. The solution is to create a special data coding system that may protect the information and secure ways of delivering information.
