

Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant - partyanimal
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242393/Why_Apple_s_indoor_GPS_plan_is_brilliant

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quchen
Sounds like _public tracking device_ to me. Put such a beacon in every street
light and you've got something the guys at CSI would be jealous of - only that
it's also public, so everyone who wants can track you if he just installs some
sender. (On the other hand, the concerns with the fingerprint reader seem
miniscule in comparison now.)

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mikeash
Cell phones have pretty much always been public tracking devices. This
increases the accuracy, but for many uses, it's not that important.

The concerns with the fingerprint reader always seemed minuscule. People
willingly carry around a radio tracking beacon that can not only tell people
where you go every single day but also record and transmit your conversations
in real time and, with a smartphone, steal all your passwords. But start using
your fingerprint to unlock it and suddenly it's _oh no the gubmint is going to
steal our precious bodily fluids!_ It makes no sense.

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Einherji
I agree 100%. First of all, I highly doubt that one of the largest tech
companies in the world would blatantly _lie_ in their marketing material.
Apple claims that fingerprint data never leaves the SoC and is not even
accessible by the OS. I don't think they would say this if it wasn't true.
Second, what use would the government have for a persons fingerprint anyway?

With regards to this iBeacon tech, my main concern is not being able to walk
down the street without being bombarded by push notifications and offers from
nearby retailers, although if used correctly this technology could enable a
great deal of novel use cases that NFC can't due to it's short range.

Can we for once just be excited about a new piece of technology instead of
hypothesizing how the government will misuse it?

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quchen
> we for once just be excited about a new piece of technology instead of
> hypothesizing how the government will misuse it?

Not this year at least, no.

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malandrew
Yup. I'd be happy if we all as an industry took a year or two to evaluate all
our current technology and fixed as much as possible to make everything
resistant to eavesdropping by intelligence agencies all over the world. Until
I have confidence that I can trust the device in my pocket, I don't really
want to be granting it even more privacy invading features ripe for abuse.

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untog
Yet another disappointment - these beacons will (of course) be closed off to
Apple devices only. I don't think we'll see another widely-used standard like
GPS for a long time.

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knightzero
Android already does something similar using wifi signals.

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LaSombra
Like this: [http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/indoor-google-
maps-...](http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/indoor-google-maps-help-
you-make-your.html)?

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addflip
Yep. I will be disabling this.

