Tiny Cell Phone Or Big Brother?
from the you're-not-worried-enough dept
Lauren Weinstein's latest column for Wired News points out that the new mobile phones that are coming out with things like high speed internet and location-based info will introduce all sorts of new ways to use your mobile phone - not all of them good. He's worried about the phones being used to track people's whereabouts or to set up spy cameras. His worry is that no one realizes this or is thinking about it. He thinks that we need to preemptively think about these issues and adjust our laws now. While I don't deny the importance of thinking about these issues and thinking about how to respond, I think it's dangerous to changes laws now, without realizing their impact. With Congress the way it is, we're likely to end up with laws that don't actually do much to prevent the misuses, but outlaw plenty of perfectly reasonable uses of mobile phones. The fear is that, once again, we'll move towards legislating against technology, rather than legislating against bad behavior.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
A decade ago
[ link to this | view in chronology ]