People have become overdependent on their GPS systems these days.
One of my favorite episodes of “The Office” comes from the fourth season, where Regional Manager Michael Scott tries to win back clients with gift baskets instead of an online ordering system.
While driving back to the office after many failed attempts, Scott’s in-car GPS system instructs him to turn right.
But there was no road to the right, only a lake.
After arguing with Assistant (to the) Regional Manager Dwight Schrute, Scott proceeds to knowingly drive his car into the lake because his GPS told him to.
The episode ends with Scott explaining how technology only tries to “murder you in a lake.”
While Scott’s off-road driving may be a bit of an exaggeration, many people today can’t do a simple task like driving around town without a GPS.
Though traditional in-car GPS units have come down considerably in price, today’s smartphones (especially those running iOS or Android) come equipped with a full-feature, turn-by-turn GPS system.
The GPS feature on my phone has definitely come in handy while driving around New Orleans and even downtown Baton Rouge.
However, the trade off with a phone having a positioning system built in means you are easily traceable.
That’s how satellites work.
However, there are benefits of somebody always knowing where your phone is.
For instance, Apple’s MobileMe service allows users to “Find my iPhone” if their Jesus Phone becomes lost — as well as remotely change the password, set off an alert chime (even with the phone on silent) or even fully erase the phone’s contents.
It’s a great feature for the absent-minded iPhone user.
Unfortunately, someone at Apple can always find out where you are.
iPhones have a setting for users to turn off their location settings, which supposedly disables phone tracking.
But this isn’t the case.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal conducted a field test after two British researchers discovered how easily someone could discover your location for the past month through your iPhone.
The test got more interesting after WSJ testers shut off their location feature yet still noticed their location still being tracked through their phone — just a bit more inaccurate.
This location information is collected and stored in the iPhone and transferred to any computer the phone syncs with.
While this information supposedly remains anonymous, it could easily become public information because of the unencrypted files on which the data is stored.
Personally, I don’t care whether Steve Jobs or anyone from Apple (or Google, in my case) knows where I’ve been.
It’s not like I plan to become a drug dealer or superhero or cheat on my nonexistent girlfriend.
But to many others, it could amount to a huge invasion of privacy.
Earlier this month, online radio site Pandora got busted for leaking users’ information — sex, birthday and location — to advertising companies via its Android app.
Currently, there is no fix for the iPhone tracking.
If you’re concerned by Steve Jobs constantly knowing where you are, your best bet is to turn the service off whenever you’re not using it.
You could also completely wipe your backup files from the computer you sync your iPhone with —  eliminating any restoration option.
But that’s a little excessive.
You could also just get rid of your iPhone completely.
But who am I kidding? There’s a better chance of the world ending next year than people giving up their precious Jesus Phones.
Adam Arinder is a 21-year-old communication studies senior from Baton Rouge.  Follow him on Twitter @TDR_aarinder.
 
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Contact Adam Arinder at
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