Ring...Ring...Where Are You?

"Mobile Phone Tracking Scrutinized,"written by Nikki Swartz, and "Reach Out and Track Someone," written by Terry J. Allen, are two articles about cell phone tracking. Both articles give facts about tracking people via their cell phone. Swartz's article, as it says in the title, is more of an article geared toward someone who is looking for the facts and looking deeper into cell phone tracking. Swartz is scrutinizing cell phone tracking by the government and forms an opinion around what the government is doing. Allen's article was more opinionated and gave his opinion in the article in a more obvious manor. Also, Allen's writing was based around his opinion, giving facts that push for more cell phone tracking. Allen believes that cell phone tracking is a way that government and law enforcement can place suspects at a crime scene.

These two pieces of work both have some similarities. One of the main differences that can seen is that both of the articles talk about how cell phone tracking can be beneficial in a crime investigation. Both of the articles both start off with an introduction on cell phone tracking. The articles both tell about how cell phone companies use triangulating towers and the cell phone signal to pinpoint the location of the cell phone and the user.

Along with similarities, there are also differences between the two articles. One of the main differences is that Swartz's articles goes in depth about a political and judicial view of cell phone tracking. Swart's writes about how prosecutors and magistrate use political acts that have been passed to rule the use of cell phone tracking necessary or unnecessary. Both of the articles give the negatives about tracking cell phones to find some, but the difference is that in Allen's article he expounds on the positive aspects of cell phone tracking.

Cell phone tracking is a very controversial issue that brings many discussions about privacy to the table. Invasion of privacy is one of the major issues that rises from cell phone tracking. Many people believe that it is unreasonable to track someone because there is not a just cause to be able to find the location of everyone with a cell phone. Cell phones can be beneficial for solving crimes, but what happened in the past when there were no cell phones? It is not necessary for the phone company to have a log of where you have been, but only necessary for the companies to have the ability if they need to find you in an emergency situation. A friend of mine's father once tracked his cell phone to find out where he was and he was not in the place that his father believed he was in so he was punished. Tracking down the exact location of your child is an unneeded luxury . Our time should not be devoted to tracking anyone down, but to tracking specific people down.

Jordan Engel