Lost and found

Today's The Daily Telegraph carries a report of two men travelling in Central Western NSW who became bogged and used a mobile phone to call for help. They were in a State Forest - but proved quite easy to find - since they were able to provide their exact co-ordinates from the GPS unit they had with them. Seems that providing every vehicle/person with a GPS would solve two problems: firstly it could cut down on expensive search costs; and secondly it would mean we could leave ours in the car without fear of having it stolen! Of course, for the finding people thing to work as well as having them with the GPS, you could also track the GPS unit itself - so you could tell at a glance where anyone was. While this might sound very Big Brother-ish (that would be Big Brother of Orwell's "1984" rather than the television version where people are locked in a house and then voted out) it has very practical applications. Mobile phone satellite tracking is already popular in Australia where parents use it to track children, eg Telstra offers a "Where is Everyone" program. And there is a new service on the horizon which will allow you to create a virtual "electric fence" so you can track that special someone's movements. This could provide a very valuable community service as well - if you could, say, track the whereabouts of someone who was legally required to stay a certain distance from your premises. According to reports, under the system, to be provided in Australia by Affinity under the title "Go Track My People", if someone goes into a restricted area, or out of their "safe" area, with their mobile phone, it sends an alert to a third party. Of course, keeping the mobile phone on someone who knows they are being tracked by it might be difficult - oh wait, perhaps that's the answer ... You don't tell them. Hmmm, it will be interesting to see what privacy protections are available with the system.
That reminds me of a news report from a while ago - about a gentleman, confined to his premises and complete with "bracelet" to confirm his location - which duly announced his departure, but then provided no help in finding him. At the time, it did seem as though the system was based on trust rather than technology.