Software allows companies to track employees via cell phones

[Richard1]

I read and this and it sounded like something straight out of "1984". I personally don't think I would work for a company that wanted to surveil me 24/7 but that's just me.

Bosses get new toy to track employees' mobile phones

"A Scottish company has released hardware that will enable bosses to track where their employees are by finding their mobile phones.
Trisent, based in Dunfermline, claims its Trilocator product is more accurate and cheaper than GPS Cell-ID systems.

Although an employee has the option of turning off their phone to switch the surveillance system off, civil liberty groups fear that there will be incredible pressures on staff to let the boss know where they are all the time."

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33522

[DonJ]

I can see situations where that might be needed: People are on-call 24 X 7, the Company is paying for all of your expenses, cell phones, pagers, etc. especially while traveling on the road. I can see that.

But just for the average employee, I don't see companies putting out that kind of extra expense.

Now the ol' lady on the other hand, she might be willing to shell it out.

[Mayet]

Can I order 5 for my kids


I wish I had gps tracking for my son.. he has aspergers and no sense of danger... turn your back and he will be a mile away

[El_Squid]

I barely tolerate having a cell phone for emergencies. I refuse to carry the damn pager the company issued me, except during work hours. If they need me after hours, they can call home, etc. and try to find me. For $50K a year they get my undying devotion during work hours and for emergencies, otherwise :butt: .

This connectivity crap is going too far. We work more than anyone else in the world, but are not the most productive. Most of the time, we are useless because we are burnt out, or we are spinning our wheels doing useless tasks, like fixing problems we created by fixing something that didn't need fixing.

[Richard1]

Yeah I feel pretty much the same way you do Squid. Productivity and connectivity are mutually exclusive.

When I worked for GE they used to have productivity meetings where we would all get together and waste half a day talking about whatever, all the while my work is piling up. They used to infuruiate me, but now in retrospect, they make me giggle.

[El_Squid]

When I worked for GE they used to have productivity meetings where we would all get together and waste half a day talking about whatever, all the while my work is piling up. They used to infuruiate me, but now in retrospect, they make me giggle.

Meetings! Argh! My second most hated word! (The first being scenario.)

I don't know how many wasted hours I've logged in pointless, non-productive meetings. If only they would serve to clarify and set definite goals, the meetings would be good. But, most of the time they only serve the purpose of appearing to take action and covering someone's butt.

[NooNoo]

I'm about to bill someone for the cost of a replacement computer which matches the computer that had a meeting with a lightening bolt.... all because they won't upgrade to the new version of software that will run under XP. My bill will be roughly equivalent to buying a brand new Dell cheapie... but at least they didn't have to upgrade!!!!

[El_Squid]

... but at least they didn't have to upgrade!!!!

God forbid they should have to change, or update. Besides, as you say, they saved some money by using the old software.

[Garak]

I'm about to bill someone for the cost of a replacement computer which matches the computer that had a meeting with a lightening bolt.... all because they won't upgrade to the new version of software that will run under XP. My bill will be roughly equivalent to buying a brand new Dell cheapie... but at least they didn't have to upgrade!!!!

boils my piss when companies do that. oh we dont need to back up "blam scrub screetch scratch" where our data.... its on that dead hard drive.... well its gone now.. aye... sounds like the type...

[WebHead]

When I worked at AT&T Wireless years ago, and when GSM first came out, they had this feature they really wanted to promote called "find friends". Basically it was a service where you establish authentication between two "friends" and then you could track that "friends" location. It was pretty close too. Came within a few blocks of where the person actually was (triangulation I believe?) Anyway, we used to joke about that. I.e.,.. Hey Chris,.. I wonder where Marie is? Let's find her on Find Friends. LOLOLOL. Then we'd track her down and call her. Oh man,.. that was hilarious at the time. Of course we were real serious when we talked with customers about it. Best thing since sliced bread.

Nowadays, I think Verizon Wireless has a smiliar feature but it's much faster and more accurate than the old GSM service we were doing it on.

[Archer]

There are several services that promote tracking of ones children via such a service:
http://www.findyourchild.net/howdoesitwork.html

Search several phones from any PC or your own mobile phone!
Once you have registered as a user, you can add mobile phone(s) numbers to your account, which you can then make searches against. You can make these searches at any time from any internet connected PC, or from your own mobile phone. View a map or receive an SMS.
If you search from a PC, we get the location of the phone from the network, and then display it on a map on your screen. If you search from your mobile, we send you an SMS that says “john is in the vicinity of………”

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news.php?newsId=1405

The new service called KidsOK, which has been endorsed by leading children's charity Kidscape, works by allowing parents subscribing to the service to establish the location of their child's mobile phone within 60 seconds. Rather than making unwanted phone calls or text messages to keep track of their child, parents using KidsOK simply 'ping' their child's mobile by sending a text message to 60777 including the child's name, for example "ping mark". KidsOK identifies the position of the child's phone to within 500m in built up areas using state of the art GSM location based technology, sending a text description and map of the location back to the parent's phone.

There are mobiles sold on auction sites that can be used to track vehicles in a similar fashion.
Basically each transmitter has a number of sectors around its circumference covering the 360 degrees and at any given time a particular mobile can possibly connect to several depending on the density of the area i.e. city centre ariels would be more abundant than say the countryside where you might get only two covering on section of the town.

So the connection statistics for a given mobile might show a connection to transmitter 1 sector A,transmitter 2 sector B and transmitter 3 sector C which would triangulate it within a certain area.

So the plot would show up as T1A,T2B,T3C as in the simplistic diagram the mobile is plotted within the confines of the circle.

[Zil]

Whats the big deal? If you are on the clock and are getting paid, you should be working, not messing around at Starbucks, the strip club or the bowling alley. It's basically stealing. But if they are tracking you 24/7 with THEIR phone, then leave it at the office or at your house, it isn't strapped to your ankle.