Geoslavery

Stated simply, geoslavery occurs when a person or an institution takes control over the spatial activity of another person. The history of such control is long and has usually involved chains and walls to restrain and contain the victims. It is perhaps epitomized by the restriction of Jews to ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe. In the early 21st century, with the advent of personal location devices such as mobile phones and global positioning systems (GPS), this control has become very personal, enabling one individual to easily monitor the location of another, control being achieved by threat or by retribution.

Tracking of individuals can be sanctioned by law and is enabled through criminal justice systems. Thus, offenders, who are released on license, can be tagged to ensure that they stick to the terms of their curfew. This has been part of offender management for a number of years. The technology to do this initially relied on a base station that simply recorded the distance the offender wandered away from the station. This approach is being replaced by GPS and mobile communication devices that report the movements of the offender and raise an alarm when the offender moves outside his or her curfew area.

Geofencing is a term used to describe the corporate use of this same technology. Many employees need to be mobile over large areas as part of their work, but employers may require them to stay within specific territories during working hours. Their locations can be monitored and alerts sounded at a monitoring office when they stray outside their assigned territories. Initially, this type of application used software to identify routes for delivery van drivers, and managers compared the recommended route with the distance driven; but this has evolved into constant

The information scientist Christoph Seifert demonstrates how to apply an electronic ankle bracelet at the district court in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, May 2, 2000. The federal state of Hesse is the first in Germany to introduce the device to control convicts under probation and house arrest.

Source: AP Photo/Frank Rumpenhorst.

monitoring of the van's location as well as of the locations of many other mobile employees. It is known when employees take too long to traverse a road, when they speed, and for how long they stop. This issue, however, raises questions of trust and appropriateness in the workplace.

The same approach is available for child monitoring. Watchlike GPS devices with mobile communications that can be locked onto a child's wrist are available, with Web-based inspection of real-time mapping of the child's location. Indeed, subcutaneous implanting of chips with GPS and communication devices has been suggested. Child tracking is also available through normal mobile phone systems without the GPS enhancement, although this is less accurate.

Another acceptable application of this technology is to monitor the locations of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease in their home or in sheltered accommodation. Devices for this application can have the additional advantage of monitoring a patient's vital signs.

Such location services, which aim to monitor and control the location of offenders, contracted employees, children, and elderly patients, are probably socially acceptable applications of this technology. Increasing numbers of cases are coming to light, however, where the use of location services is not socially acceptable, where, indeed, they can be criminal, for instance, when the technology is applied to adults with no record of offending by those who wish to monitor their location in order to exercise control. People are using the technology for stalking others, for monitoring the location of spouses without their permission, and for checking on the locations of employees even when there is no contractual obligation regarding location.

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