Panic?
Along with the potential technical troubles, Cell-All has social implications, something S&T has already acknowledged.
“DHS is looking at this very carefully from a privacy standpoint,” Kelly said.
Still, Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies said she is concerned about whether linking cell phones to a sensor network would intrude on consumers’ lives.
“Part of it is that we’ve had a lack of control across the board,” she said. “We have had a proliferation of surveillance, such as cameras in cities, that Americans can’t control.”
She said she also worries that Cell-All is another in a long line of technological “magic bullet” proposals that drain funding away from areas where it could be more effective.
“Obviously, we have serious threats right now,” she said. “We need personnel, human intelligence. And yet tremendous amounts of money get siphoned off to technology.”
Human intelligence initiatives, such as solving the shortage of translators at the FBI and other agencies, could likely be put into effect faster than projects such as Cell-All, Graves said.
Durstenfeld, of RAE Systems, noted that Cell-All could create public panic, if it is not implemented properly. He noted that the current idea for the system would help monitoring agencies and first-responders, but would not be of much use to someone carrying a sensor.
“There are pluses and minuses to it,” he said. “What are you going to do when the sensor alert on your cell phone goes off?”
But Smith, of eV Products, said he believes consumers will want the sensors.
“The reality is there’s a market for people who want to carry these things.”
Rob Margetta can be reached at
rmargetta@cq.com