Wherever we look, we're slaves to technology

Posted on Wed, Nov. 25, 2009
Michael Smerconish: Wherever we look, we're slaves to technology
By Michael Smerconish - Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Opinion Columnist

FORGET the tryptophan, I've got technology on the brain.
What's missing?

A few weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission sent out a mailer announcing that something called E-Z-Pass Plus would be available to E-ZPass customers (like me) beginning on Nov. 1.

As it explained: "E-ZPass Plus allows E-ZPass customers to use their transponder to pay for parking fees at participating facilities displaying the E-ZPass Plus logo."

Sounds great. Among the facilities currently accepting E-ZPass Plus: LaGuardia Airport, JFK International, Albany International, Syracuse Hancock International, Newark Liberty International, Atlantic City International, New York Avenue Parking Garage (in Atlantic City), Atlantic Avenue Surface Lot (also in A.C.) and the Great New York State Fair of Syracuse, N.Y.

What's missing? That 2.4 million-square-foot travel hub on the border of Philadelphia and Delaware County - our airport (although they now say they're considering it). So how long am I destined to continue sitting in the slowest exit line as I leave the lot? At least I'll be able to expedite my exit from the New York State Fair.

Checking in

Speaking of the airport, my family has several plane rides in the cards this holiday season. And knowing that Southwest Airlines' policy allows for online check-in 24 hours before departure, I'm seated in front of the atomic clock, counting the seconds until my flight is exactly a day away. I don't mean 23 hours, 59 minutes. I'm trying to access the passes exactly 24 hours in advance.

Apparently, I'm not alone. Because when I hit the send key right when that moment arrives, somehow I am still No. 27 in the check-in line.

All electronic devices?

One more airline item. Earlier this month, an AirTran flight from Atlanta to Houston was delayed 2 1/2 hours after a passenger reportedly refused to turn off a handheld electronic device before takeoff. Reports vary - the airline said it was a cell phone, another flier said it was a camera.

I'm sure the situation wasn't helped by the fact that the passenger in question apparently didn't speak English. He and an interpreter were briefly retained and caught a later flight.

"We can't taxi with the cell phone on, and we certainly can't take off," an airline spokesman told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "Language barrier or not, you start to butt up against interfering with a flight crew." A familiar refrain. But it makes me wonder how airlines, including AirTran, can offer Wi-Fi Internet midflight but won't allow cell phone use just before takeoff.

Answer: I don't believe that cell phones and electronic devices really interfere on planes (or in hospitals, for that matter). It's all about exerting control.

GPS me, you'll be bored

Antoine Jones is a convicted drug trafficker serving a life sentence. That he's appealing the conviction probably isn't a surprise, though the basis of that appeal might be. He's questioning the FBI's ability to track him using a GPS device without first obtaining a warrant to do so.

CNN legal correspondent Avery Friedman told me the legal question is this: At what point is GPS installation a violation of Fourth Amendment rights - that is, the right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures?

My first instinct is to say that warrants should be required to electronically track a person's whereabouts. But law-enforcement doesn't need a warrant to perform physical surveillance like tailing a suspect's car. And that type of surveillance is arguably more invasive than simply tracking location and movement.

Courts across the country are "split right down the middle" on this issue, Friedman told me. Here is my solution - the legality should turn on where the car was when law enforcement got access. In the driveway of a person's house, I say a privacy right extends. At a parking mall or at work, the government wins. If we really wanted to help law enforcement, we'd put a GPS on everyone's car and give police access.

Speaking of leaving a trail . . .

At breakfast on Sunday, my wife wondered who'd watched "Falling Down" On Demand recently. My answer (it was me) was met with a follow-up: So who watched "Bruno"? Uh-oh.

Another reminder that from e-mail to the Internet to Austrian faux-fashionistas, there's always a paper trail - or the 21st century version of one.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Contact him via www.smerconish.com.