GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: New technology means that in a few months an emergency cell phone call might bring a quicker result. But in San Francisco, Don Knapp reports some may not like it that way.</s>DON KNAPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By October of next year, your cell phone will have to know where you are -- even if you don't. That should bring hope for 911 caller like this frantic- sounding young woman.</s>UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Nine-one-one.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god, my boyfriend got me in the trunk of the car.</s>KNAPP: Dispatchers were unable to figure out where the call was coming from. But in the near future, cell phones will automatically tell 911 their location to within a city block. One version uses the GPS, signals from global positioning satellites. Another version may track a wireless phone or hand-held device through nearby cell-tower antennas. Vicinity Corporation says its tracking and marketing will be passive. Cell phone users will have to ask for it by requesting the service. But others worry about the potential for abuse.</s>IAN GOLDBERG, ZERO KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS: The big danger comes in if this feature is designed into phones in such a way that someone who is not you can steal your location information out of your phone without your consent or even without your knowledge.</s>KNAPP: The technology is moving so fast that manufacturers may find it difficult to keep up with ethical issues.</s>DEBORAH PIERCE, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: Even people who are creating the technology, they're not always thinking about the privacy concerns associated with them they're thinking about, oh, isn't it great that we can do this?</s>KNAPP: One solution: an off-on switch, so that the system knows where you are only when you want it to. Don Knapp, CNN, San Francisco.
Cell Phones with GPS Technology Spark Controversy