GPS location service online

A California company is marketing to individuals a Global Positioning Satellite locating service for vehicles previously sold only to public safety agencies. For $65 a month, customers can track their cars' locations online. After installing the hardware, about the size of a cassette tape, users can access the Web using a browser or Net-enabled phone and, after supplying the right password, view real-time maps showing a car's location or a log of its movements. While the company's advertising focuses on safety issues, critics of the service include privacy advocates and private detectives who fear it will take away business.

In a related story, Mitsui & Co. announced several months ago that it would begin selling wearable GPS location devises in 2001. More recently, Applied Digital Solutions bought the patent for a "personal tracking and recovery system" that combines GPS wireless communications and biosensors in a chip powered by body heat that could be embedded in a watch or, theoretically, implanted in the body.

For more on the car GPS system, click foxnews.com. To read an article on personal GPS devices, go to salon.com.