Big Brother - er, Dad - Is Watching - This past Sunday, the NYTimes took a look at the emerging technology of do-it-yourself surveillance via GPS chip tracking. Thanks to the E911 initiative, most mobile phones now have built-in locator technology, so your movements can be traced from afar. AT&T was the first provider to roll out so-called location-based services, a/k/a Find Friends, and now a new company called uLocate has jumped into the business. (Or if they're too young for mobiles, slap a Wherify Wireless watch on their wrist.)

Compared with FF, which requires active use to know where your loved ones are, uLocate sounds like parental (or spousal) monitoring from Hell. As reported in the Times, this service allows you to set up an alert system that will notify you via email or an SMS when someone leaves or arrives from locations you have defined (e.g. school, home, office). Just the thought that you're being watched has a deterrent effect, says the Times:

Mr. Lutz did not happen to be checking when Britney developed pangs of guilt for taking a train home later than she was supposed to, but the system worked just as he had hoped: she volunteered the information that evening. "Before, they might not have told me the truth, but now I know they're going to," said Mr. Lutz. "They know I care. And they know I'm watching."

As if the poor teenager wasn't suffering enough for being named Britney Lutz.