Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
computerworld.com
Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#2Sounds 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.)
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#3Sounds 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.)
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.
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#4Yep. I will be disabling this.
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#5Sounds 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.)
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 p…
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?
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 p…
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…
> 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.
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#7Sounds 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.)
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 p…
>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.
It kind of makes sense. Biometrics are a whole different discipline in security and identification. It's harder to spoof, and while not really necessary for the lowly consumer, will increase their device security.
That said, you can't just say it makes no sense for any outrage when you take into account the current political hot buttons of the day: NSA's breach of trust, Rising "Inverted Totalitarianism" within the government, the lack of trust in corporate entities, etc.
It's a matter of trust. If you can't trust either a corporation or government, then this amount of open access seems scary. You may not be scared, but to dismiss others people's concern as not valid proves you're not obviously sympathetic to their viewpoint.
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#8Yet 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.
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 p…
>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. It kind of makes sense. Biometrics are a whole different discipline in security and identification. It's harder to spoof, and while not really necessary for the lowly consumer, will increase their device security. That said, you can't just say it makes no sense for any ou…
Even taking into account all the factors you say, it still makes no sense. A modern smartphone is basically a mobile spy device, ready and able to be subverted by organizations such as the NSA to spy on you 24/7. Adding a fingerprint scanner to it is so incredibly minor compared to what they can already do that it boggles the mind why anyone would care about that specific bit.
I'm completely sympathetic to concerns about government spying. I just don't understand why carrying around a mobile spy box all day is fine, but carrying around a mobile spy box that scans your fingerprint is an outrage.
Re: Why Apple's 'indoor GPS' plan is brilliant
#10Yet 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.
The two companies linked in the article: http://buyibeacons.com/ says they have both iOS and Android SDKs, http://estimote.com/ says that any Bluetooth 4.0 device can support their beacons.