(BOSTON, Mass. - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SafetyMinute Seminars) Reports last week indicated that the ownership of non-GPS-compatible cell phones may soon become financially prohibitive. According to Robert Siciliano, author of "The Safety Minute: 01," the news suggested that GPS will one day become a requirement for all consumers. He also predicted that privacy advocates, whose views he considers commendable but antiquated, would step up campaigns against tracking technology in response to the growing market for GPS.

"Right now, homeland security concerns mean the GPS industry has the government's ear," said Siciliano, an identity theft and personal security expert who delivers presentations to Fortune 500 companies across the nation. "Through the passing of favorable regulation, legislators will help to hasten widespread adoption of GPS and other tracking technologies." Siciliano is president of SafetyMinute Seminars.

Madison, Wisconsin's WMTV "NBC15" aired a report on March 3 about a 2001 FCC mandate calling for all wireless users to have GPS-enabled cell phones by the end of 2005. The station quoted a US Cellular spokesperson who said the rule may lead that company to charge extra fees for customers who decide to keep older, non-GPS-compatible phones. Other cell phone producers, according to the story, may follow suit.

A Feb. 19 article in The Charlotte Observer reported that an Ohio company implanted Cincinnati-based CityWatcher's radio frequency identification technology (RFID) to track two employees' access to a secure area. The two employees, according to the article, volunteered for this testing of human-implantable RFID technology.

Sites such as Free Internet Press, Democracy NOW, and others have run articles sympathetic to the perceived threat to privacy that such technologies pose.

"Privacy is dead," said Siciliano. "This didn't happen yesterday. Whether privacy ever existed, or was ever useful, is not the issue. Privacy advocates, now, simply argue the wrong issue, one that went the way of the dinosaurs."

"We need to debate security," Siciliano continued. "Who are we going to trust with this technology? GPS, RFID, and other tracking technology are not going away. They're already here-and here to stay."

"Consumer and security industry demand for tracking technology will outpace privacy advocates' efforts to curb adoption," Siciliano concluded. "Recent articles in The Daily Advertiser and elsewhere illustrate this beyond a doubt. Once the technology is out there, all sorts of applications will crop up, and the question will become: How do we manage security in a tracking-enabled world?"

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Robert Siciliano provides consumer education solutions to Fortune 500 companies and their clients and leads personal safety and security seminars nationwide. He has been featured on CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, "The Suze Orman Show," "The Montel Williams Show," "Maury Povich," and "The Howard Stern Show."

The media may reach Siciliano at 1 (888) SICILIANO (742-4542). Visit his Web site, www.safetyminute.com