From the category archives:
Certainly you’re familiar with the brouhaha that Apple and Google stirred when the extents of their tracking were revealed over the last ten days. Details were shed on this issue at the Where 2.0 Conference, although many had been tipped to the tracking at the timing of the release of the iPhone 4 with a [...]
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The Federal Aviation Administration and the American Civil Liberties Union are both interested in monitoring and regulating the use of surveillance drones for private use. The success of small backpack-sized drone surveillance aircraft is of particular interest to both groups, given their low-cost potential to track and monitor, including live video. At present, the FAA [...]
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In a ruling Monday in the case Milner v. Department of the Navy, 09-1163, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can’t withhold data and maps from Freedom of Information Act requests related to Exemption 2. The 8-1 ruling went against the Navy’s decision to withhold maps that showed the extent of damage expected from [...]
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Technologists at BrickHouse Security responded to a request from a church to be able to track their baby Jesus statue after losing one to theft a year ago from their outdoor nativity scene. The New York-based company installed a motion-activated GPS tracker within the figure so that if it moves, alerts are sent and the [...]
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A lot of spatial data is locked up and won’t see the light of day unless major policy changes occur. While there would appear to be some legitimate concerns for some of this data to remain inaccessible, the question really is more about the benefits that we’re missing than the benefits we gain by keeping [...]
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The German government met with Google and other Internet executives this week regarding their concerns about the privacy of personal geographical data. The concern arises primarily from the company’s StreetView technology, which has raised widespread concern in the country. Despite the unprecedented move by Google to allow any German property owner to opt-out of having [...]
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With the school year started, I embellished a description of the parent web portal at my sons’ school, indicating that in addition to providing us feedback on assignments and tracking their performance, there were also sensors throughout the school that would track and report their movements and could tell if they were paying attention. My [...]
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The “virtual fence” sensor web project along the Mexican border has been stripped of $50Million of federal stimulus funds by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano due to cost overruns and missed deadlines. The fence has been installed and is undergoing testing in two areas along the Arizona border, but there are no plans to extend [...]
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The RCMP searched the Whistler Olympic village with a dog team after a suspicious map of the complex was found. The map contained notations that the authorities said were concerning, although they refused to reveal the nature of the notations. Security is a significant component of the games these days, with Canada reportedly spending $866 [...]
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Fusion Core, the mapping system that combines Microsoft’s SharePoint Server with ESRI’s ArcGIS Server, is at the center of the security system developed for Super Bowl XLIV. The system brings together various data streams into one system and allows users to exchange documents, information and alerts. The system, called Project Dolphin, enables multi-agency collaboration for [...]
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