#1044 G-Man GPS

They say that freedom won’t go out with a bang, but a whimper and I’m beginning to believe them. Slowly, surely, we are trading our privacy for the seductive vixen of convenience.
It’s convenience that makes us want to carry cellphones wherever we go. Convenience that makes us sign up for a service that tells our friends where we are without us having to Twitter it. Convenience that leads us to accept that each and every portable cellular device we carry contains a miniature GPS unit.
GPS helps us find other places. But it also helps other people find our place. It is theoretically possible at this point for someone to track you down based on the cellphone in your pocket.
In the old days you might get in your car, and if the police were after you because they thought you had committed some crime, they could put out an APB on your license plate, and if someone was lucky enough to spot it, they could track you down.
Now, they don’t need your car...or your cellphone.
The new enhanced driver’s license makes finding you easy. Enhanced drivers licenses are the new in-between documentation you can take with you if you don’t want to spring for the time and money of a real passport. They are so much more convenient to acquire.
Say you’re only going to Canada for an illegal prescription drug run every now and then. No problem, hop down to the DMV and pick up your new “enhanced drivers license.” How is it enhanced? Simple and convenient. Embedded in your license is a little radio device with unique numbers. It’s like the microchips they put in dogs.
Except now it’s in your back pocket. They’re passive radio devices to be sure, but every time you walk by a government reader they know you’re there.
“Who cares?” you say. “If you’re not doing anything criminal you got nothing to worry about.” All well and good if your trust your government will always be led by the right people.
I mean who ever heard of unscrupulous politicians misusing power?
Only when it was convenient...
America, ya gotta love it.