Re: Position escrow

[Dave Emery <die@pig.die.com>]

On Tue, Apr 21, 1998 at 04:43:38PM -0700, Lucky Green wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Phil Karn wrote:
> 
> > This is a really difficult issue. Even the most diehard cypherpunk
> > cannot doubt the usefulness of a cellular position reporting
> > capability in an emergency situation, when the user *wants* the cops
> > or whoever to know where he is.  The big problem is how to keep it
> > from being used (or abused) for "law enforcement" purposes without the
> > consent of the user.
> 
> Usfull != good idea. If the information is available for some purposes, 
> it is, or soon will, become available for other purposes. The only way to 
> prevent this is to not make the information available for *any* purpose.
> 
> I gladly take the cellphone without 911 locator over the cellphone with 
> 24/7 postion escrow. Furthermore, I content that there is no middle 
> ground between the two. Assuming of course the phone doesn't have an 
> active locator device that can be enabled using a special 911 button.
> 

	I am afraid that I'm enough of a paraniod cynic to wonder as to
the motives of the FCC in establishing this hard and fast requirement.
I'm afraid the police state types who benefit have considerable access
to and influence in such places as the FCC (which is in part a federal
law enforcement agency), and clearly anybody who wants the capability
for tracking the sheeple certainly had a golden opportunity to sell it
as important for E911 and fraud control.   The fact this has, in fact,
been the public reason given doesn't convince me that darker
possibilities aren't important factors.   Mark my words, someone will
turn up the memo explaining the strategy in some FIOA  request in a few
years.

	Certainly a cooperative protocol could have been used such
that a mobile station would have the option of opting out of having
its position determined, but apparently not doing this has been
sold to the carriers as a business opportunity - namely charging
different rates depending on where the caller is when making the
call.   This has been trumpeted as allowing carriers to charge
low rates for cell calls at home where there is wired phone 
competition and gouging rates for calls from places where there
is no alternative...



	

-- 
	Dave Emery N1PRE,  die@die.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. 
PGP fingerprint = 2047/4D7B08D1 DE 6E E1 CC 1F 1D 96 E2  5D 27 BD B0 24 88 C3 18