Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System (GPS) allows users to pinpoint their location anywhere on Earth to within a few meters. GPS technology was developed for military use, but by the early twenty-first century it had acquired numerous civilian applications including navigation, mapping and surveying, optimizing emergency response systems, and precision agriculture. The major ethical and legal challenges of this technology relate to national control and the potential end-uses of GPS-derived locational data. The U.S. Department of Defense provides the global GPS infrastructure; civilian use is maintained at the discretion of the U.S. government. Personal privacy is a concern because GPS capabilities, embedded in devices such as cell phones, can allow third parties to track the location of individuals. Regulations and laws covering such surveillance are not fully developed.
GPS almost always refers to the NAVSTAR system, the most widely used Global Navigation Satellite System, developed and maintained by the United States government. The U.S. Department of Defense originally developed GPS to locate submarines accurately and thus calculate trajectories for ballistic missile launches. The system depends on twenty-four satellites that continuously broadcast radio signals, positioned in precise orbits approximately eleven nautical miles above Earth. The first satellite was launched in 1978 and the network was completed in 1994. The signals and satellite locations are monitored and corrected as necessary from five ground control stations. A GPS receiver picking up signals from four satellites can compute its location, often to an accuracy of less than ten meters, anywhere on the globe.
GPS depends on the accurate maintenance of the satellites, signals, and related control systems—all of which are entirely under the control of the United States government. The United States deliberately degraded the signal available to civilian users until May 2, 2000. A full-precision civilian signal has since been available to all users, and the United States says that it intends to maintain free worldwide access to the signal. As a result, GPS is increasingly an international utility provided by one nation. The satellites broadcast a separate code for military use, and the U.S. military can jam the civilian signal to selected areas.
GPS itself is an inert provider of locational data. To be used as a tracking device, it must be linked to a communications system. Using GPS in monitoring, surveillance, or intelligence systems raises questions about the invasion of individual privacy, and the legal requirements for warrants and informed consent. GPS-communications devices are often placed on emergency and delivery vehicles to track their locations and optimize their usages. This technology can also be used to track the movements of personal vehicles and to monitor the movements of people including Alzheimer's patients and criminals. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has directed that cell phones should be locatable in case of an emergency call; placing a GPS link in cell phones is one way to achieve this. The legal implications of being able to monitor a person's location and movements remotely have not been fully established.
An essential component of modern warfare, GPS is integrated in many advanced weapons and sensors. Combined with communications and geographic information systems, GPS provides comprehensive information on the location and movement of troops and assets, and allows accurate targeting of missiles. Some people have ethical concerns about the military applications of GPS, while others argue that accurate location information lowers collateral damage in warfare.
GPS has evolved from a military system into a widely used global utility, although the basic signal remains available at the discretion of the U.S. National Command Authorities. Individual jurisdictions have yet to decide acceptable parameters for the use of data derived from the GPS signal.
Aviation Regulatory Agencies;; Geographic Information Systems.
Bibliography
Balough, Richard C. (2001). "Global Positioning System and the Internet: A Combination with Privacy Risks." CBA Record (Chicago Bar Association) 15(7): 28–33.
Larijani, L. Casey. (1998). GPS for Everyone: How the Global Positioning System Can Work for You. New York: American Interface Corporation.
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