GPS, transportation and privacy

An advocacy group representing about 20% New York's yellow cabs is calling a strike [This link has rotted away] for today and tomorrow over an upcoming requirement for cabs to carry a GPS and credit card payment system. The cabbies' beef, of course, is that this will allow The Man to know exactly where they are and have been. The Man, of course, argues that this will be better for customers and ultimately for the cabbies as well.

Long-haul truckers have been through the same conflict. As I understand it, GPS in some form is a fact of life, but there is definitely still resistance to increased monitoring.

I'm not going to take a position here on who's right. It's worth thinking over, though. Three are some pretty similar, and significant, privacy issues in the 4G picture I painted, and which various players are working hard to make happen.