[Rumor]

GPS sneakers allow parents to track children anyplace they go: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

In a way, this is pretty cool. If you child comes up missing, they can be tracked. Unless the kidnapper removes the shoes.

[nonhuman]

Excellent! That will make it much easier for child molesters to find them and hide them!

[Rumor]

Um, not just anyone can track them. Did you read the article?

[nonhuman]

Right... Because we're so good at computer security...

It says that the shoes constantly transmit their location once they've been activated. That means that they're emitting a signal. That means they can be detected, located, and tracked by anyone with a basic knowledge of radio technology.

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

Right... Because we're so good at computer security...

It says that the shoes constantly transmit their location once they've been activated. That means that they're emitting a signal. That means they can be detected, located, and tracked by anyone with a basic knowledge of radio technology.

Huh?

The sneakers work when the wearer presses a button on the shoe to activate the GPS. A wireless alert detailing the location is sent to a 24-hour monitoring service that costs an additional $19.95 a month.

In some emergencies _ such as lost child or Alzheimer's patient _ a parent, spouse or guardian can call the monitoring service, and operators can activate the GPS remotely and alert authorities if the caller can provide the correct password.

But the shoe is not meant for non-emergencies _ like to find out if a teen is really at the library or a spouse is really on a business trip. If authorities are called and it is not an emergency, the wearer will incur all law enforcement costs, Daniel said.

Once the button is pressed, the shoe will transmit information until the battery runs out.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

Huh?

Anything that emits a radio signal can be located and tracked. These shoes emit a radio signal once they've been activated. Admittedly, the fact that the shoes have to be activated first means that you can't just track a random kid at random, but the possibility still exists.

And since these are special shoes, not an add-on you put into whatever shoes your kid would otherwise be wearing, what's to stop an abductor from recognizing them, taking them off the kid, activating them, and throwing them in the back of a passing truck or something?

[torsoboy]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

Anything that emits a radio signal can be located and tracked. These shoes emit a radio signal once they've been activated. Admittedly, the fact that the shoes have to be activated first means that you can't just track a random kid at random, but the possibility still exists.

And since these are special shoes, not an add-on you put into whatever shoes your kid would otherwise be wearing, what's to stop an abductor from recognizing them, taking them off the kid, activating them, and throwing them in the back of a passing truck or something?

From what I have seen on the news, a lot of these abductors aren't exactly into current technology news.

I don't think it is just a regular radio signal, is that how GPS works? I think they have a proprietary signal that you can't just "listen" to with decrypting it. Which I think most abductors aren't going to do. Even if you could decrypt it, how would you know which signal to look for? It's not like the signal says "Johnny Bo" at the start of it.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by torsoboy 

From what I have seen on the news, a lot of these abductors aren't exactly into current technology news.

I don't think it is just a regular radio signal, is that how GPS works? I think they have a proprietary signal that you can't just "listen" to with decrypting it. Which I think most abductors aren't going to do. Even if you could decrypt it, how would you know which signal to look for? It's not like the signal says "Johnny Bo" at the start of it.

It's not the GPS that would be trackable. GPS locaters do not broadcast anything, they merely receive the signals from various satellites and, based on the information those satellites are broadcasting, calculate their position. The part where it's transmitting information is the part where the shoes are communicating that position back to some home base. If they didn't do that, there would be absolutely no point in this device as the shoes would know where they were and no one else would.

And you don't need to decrypt it, you just need to know what frequency it's on. Once you know the frequency you can determine a) that it's transmitting and b) what direction it's transmitting from. If you have two receivers in different locations you can also triangulate the exact point of origin for the transmission.

Yes, this is probably beyond the capabilities of most predators. But it is definitely not impossible, and it's definitely not beyond the capabilities of abductors who might be targeting the child of wealthy/powerful parents for ransom or political reasons.

[torsoboy]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

...

Yes, this is probably beyond the capabilities of most predators. But it is definitely not impossible, and it's definitely not beyond the capabilities of abductors who might be targeting the child of wealthy/powerful parents for ransom or political reasons.

Agreed. People abducting the wealthy seem to go to pretty far extremes to do it. But how would they know which signal is the one that they are looking for rather than someone else's signal?

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by torsoboy 

Agreed. People abducting the wealthy seem to go to pretty far extremes to do it. But how would they know which signal is the one that they are looking for rather than someone else's signal?

Well, presumably there won't be all that many kids with these shoes, and even if they are, they won't all be transmitting at once.