Replay Six Months Of A German Politician's Life Thanks To His Mobile Phone Data

from the press-play dept

Various governments have tried to claim that it's no big deal to get your location data from mobile phone providers -- with US law enforcement suggesting such information shouldn't even require a warrant at times. But it's interesting to see just how much that kind of data can reveal about someone. Shane Richmond points us to an absolutely fascinating visualization put together by the German newspaper Die Zeit. Apparently German politician Malte Spitz sued Deutsche Telekom to get access to his own location and phone data (the kind of thing that governments request all the time) and then handed it over to Zeit, who put together a stunning visualization of six months of Spitz's life. You can see where he is at all times, and Zeit cross referenced the information with other public information, including Twitter feeds, blog entries and other websites, to provide context and details as to Spitz's life. Somewhat eye-opening in how much information can be put together concerning your life with access to such phone data...

Filed Under: data, germany, malte spitz, mobile phone, privacy

Federal Courts Afraid Your Smartphone Might Be A Bomb

from the well-there-goes-that-idea dept

While a state court in Connecticut may be fine with you tweeting from the courtroom via your phone, you might not be allowed to bring your smartphone into federal courtrooms at all. Apparently the Administrative Office of the Courts is arguing that smartphones should be banned completely from federal court houses, because they might hide bombs. Really? I mean, can't we at least have a TSA style grope and scan before we write off all smartphones? David Kravets, the author of the article linked above, highlights how different federal courthouses seem to take very different views on technology these days:

At the District of Columbia federal courthouse, which is home to the lower courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals, I had to check my cellphone at the door two weeks ago. And in the Los Angeles federal courthouse, I was ordered, by a judge, to turn off the Wi-Fi signal emitted from my HTC Evo in December.

But in San Francisco, the judiciary allows Wi-Fi connected computing inside its courtrooms, from either a cellphone or a computer. Live blogging or tweeting is commonplace there.

That is the status quo with the ongoing Barry Bonds criminal trial in San Francisco. What’s more, the San Francisco federal courthouse even provides free Wi-Fi in many courtrooms.

It seems like that's going significantly overboard to claim that we should ban all smartphones just because some people might misuse them.

Filed Under: bombs, courts, smartphones