“According to our conception of privacy of location and space, individuals have the right to move about in public or semi-public space without being identified, tracked or monitored.” (Friedewald, 2013)

Do you feel the gaze on the back of your neck? Is there a darker shadow among the other shadows on the opposite side of the street? It can give me a chill if anyone is following me from subway, then to my street, then to the same building… I would stop annoyed (and bit scared) and ask: “Why are you following me?” If only for this unpleasant feeling of being watched the privacy of location and space should be a topic in the public discussion as the number of cameras in the public space increases.

I think again that the technologies should be used in a ‘reasonable’ way and that there should be clear regulations. I understand why there is a camera in shop or in a bank, but there is no need to have them on each corner. I agree that it is nice to have a smooth shot thanks to a camera attached to a drone, but the drone should not invade in a private garden or look through a window of a bathroom.

If someone is tracking us down it really bites away a piece of our freedom, it is potentially dangerous for us. We might be robbed why we are away, any important person could be delayed (putting obstacles into the way) or attacked, or their kids might be kidnapped… so what are the ways to determine our location?

Apart from already mentioned example  “taking picture & using face recognition” there are multiple other ways. Many smartphones are having GPS for instance (and many apps ask for permission to use it) and the operator is as well having some idea about our location due to the location & range of antennas. Michael Friedewald is correctly mentioning all the RFID cards such as those for public transportation. They are tied to your identity and by collecting data from different RFID readers your path (and schedule) might be reconstructed. And these can be read remotely (from a short distance).

References
- Finn, R. L., Wright, D., & Friedewald, M. (2013). Seven types of privacy. In European data protection: coming of age (pp. 3-32). Springer Netherlands.