March 5, 2003

KU researcher warns against potential threat of 'geoslavery'

LAWRENCE -- Jerome Dobson wants to make sure his field of research 
doesn't aid the greatest threat to personal freedom.

As a pioneer of geographic information systems (GIS), Dobson, a 
researcher at the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program at the 
University of Kansas, helped develop the technology that now is 
commonplace in government, business and practically every aspect 
of modern life.  

Since 1975, Dobson has used GIS for a number of applications -- from 
conducting environmental analyses to identifying populations at risk 
of terrorism and natural disasters -- by combining data sets such as 
detailed population counts of every country in the world, terrain and 
nighttime lights interpreted from satellite images, road networks and 
elevations. Dobson, who is a professor of geography at KU, also is 
president of the American Geographical Society.  

Unfortunately, the same technology that has so many beneficial uses 
also has the potential to create a highly sophisticated form of slavery, 
or "geoslavery," as Dobson calls it. What worries Dobson is that GIS 
technology easily could be used not only to spy on people but to 
control them as well.  

"It concerns me that something I thought was wonderful has a downside 
that may lead to geoslavery -- the greatest threat to freedom we've 
ever experienced in human history," he said.  

By combining GIS technology with a global positioning system (GPS) 
and a radio transmitter and receiver, someone easily can monitor your 
movements with or without your knowledge. Add to that a transponder 
-- either implanted into a person or in the form of a bracelet -- that 
sends an electric shock any time you step out of line, and that person 
actually can control your movements from a distance.  

Sound like something from a bad sci-fi movie? Actually, several 
products currently on the market make this scenario possible.  

"In many ways that's what we're doing with prisoners right now, 
but they've been through a legal process," he said.  

In fact, many of the existing products are marketed to parents 
as a way to protect their children from kidnappers. Dobson, 
however, said parents should think twice before using such 
products.  

"A lot of people think this is a way to protect their children," he 
said. "But most kidnappers won't have any compunction about cutting 
the child to remove an implant or bracelet."  

Furthermore, these products rely on wireless networks, which are 
notoriously easy for hackers to break into, potentially turning 
the very products meant to protect children into fodder for tech-savvy 
child predators.  

Dobson outlined the dangers of geoslavery in an article that appears 
in the most recent issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics 
Engineers' Technology and Society magazine. Peter F. Fisher, editor of 
the International Journal of Geographic Information Science, co-wrote 
the paper with Dobson. More than 375,000 scientists read the IEEE 
magazine.  

One of the greatest dangers of geoslavery is that it doesn't apply 
just to governments. For example, individuals could use the technology 
to perpetuate various forms of slavery, from child laborers to sex slaves 
to a simple case of someone controlling the whereabouts of his or her 
spouse, Dobson said.  

"Many people have concerns today about privacy but they haven't put 
all the pieces together and realized this means someone can actually 
control them -- not just know about them, but control them," Dobson 
said.  

As the price of these products gets cheaper and cheaper, the likelihood 
rises that the technology will be abused, he said. To prevent this, 
Dobson's paper outlines a number of actions that should be taken, 
including revising national and international laws on incarceration, 
slavery, stalking and branding, and developing encryption systems that 
prevent criminals or countries with bad human rights records from 
accessing GPS signals.  

Still, the first step is making people aware of the very real threat 
that geoslavery poses. The potential for harm is even greater in less 
developed nations without strong traditions of personal freedom, he 
said. 

"We need a national dialogue on this if we're going to go into something 
so different from our traditional values of privacy and freedom," Dobson 
said. "We need to think about it very carefully and decide if this is a 
direction we as a society want to go."  

Dobson said he doesn't consider himself a crusader. Instead, he is a 
scientist who is working diligently to ensure that people really 
understand the good and bad sides of the technology he helped create.  

"There certainly are many, many good uses for the technology -- that's 
not the issue -- the issue is that it can be so easily misused," he said. 
"My role as a university professor is to alert people and make sure there 
is an informed debate."  

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Source: University of Kansas
http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/03N/MarchNews/March5/dobson.html

Cheers, Steve..

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