Page 268 - Using MIS

236 Chapter 6 The Cloud

Why Should I Worry About Geotagging? you’re worried about stalkers, child predators, or your privacy.
Don’t take pictures of private spaces like your home, school, or
What’s the downside of geotagging? Do you want people to know hotel room. Don’t take pictures of valuables in your home. Most
where you were when you took your pictures? For example, importantly, disable geotagging if you’re going to play hooky
suppose you take a seemingly innocuous picture in your house. from work!
It’s just you and some friends having a party. What could be
harmful about posting a public picture of a party? Who cares if
geotagging is enabled?
If you look closely at the picture you took, it shows your new Questions
TV, Xbox, laptop, and tablet in the background. It also gives a
good view of the layout of your home. That’s just what a burglar is 1. Do you have geotagging enabled on your smartphone? Why or
looking for. Now he only needs to know where you live and when why not?
you’ll be out of town. Oh . . . you just tweeted that you’re going on 2. Give an example of how geotagging can be used in a positive
vacation next week. Perfect. way.
Not convinced? Well, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the 3. Give an example of how using geotagging might be
national parks service posted signs telling tourists on photo detrimental.
5
safaris to disable geotagging in all phones and cameras. It did 4. Why might taking pictures of valuables inside your home, with
this to protect endangered rhinos from being shot by poachers. geotagging enabled, be a security concern?
Poachers can get the coordinates of where the rhinos are at
certain times of day from the photos posted by tourists. Then they 5. Give an example of how geotagging might affect law
come back after dark and poach the animals. enforcement.
All technology can be misused. Geotagging isn’t inherently 6. Would the military be concerned about geotagging? Why or
bad. Not at all. It just needs to be used responsibly. Disable it if why not?

would have taken years and thousands of dollars in the past. Go to its site to check its re-
sponse time; it’s fast!
Organizations like AllRoad Parts can move into the 3D design sales business by storing
part designs on cloud servers. If that business line takes off, AllRoad can elastically expand its
infrastructure quickly and cheaply. Large companies gain the same advantages but on a larger
scale. So, the cloud lifts all boats and should enable organizations to develop more information
systems cheaply and quickly, and thus (you knew it was coming!) increase the demand for em-
ployees who know how to use and manage information systems! 6
But what else? The cloud will foster new categories of work. By 2025, everything will
be connected to everything else, with most data stored in the cloud. Mobile systems will
be the standard; desktops will be relegated to content creators. So what new opportunities
might arise?
Consider remote action systems, IS that provide computer-based activity or action
at a distance. By enabling action at a distance, remote action systems save time and travel
expense and make the skills and abilities of an expert available in places where he or she is
not physically located. They also enable experts to scale their expertise. Let’s look at a few
examples.
Telediagnosis is a remote action system that healthcare professionals use to diagnose
illness for patients in rural or remote areas. Telesurgery uses telecommunications to link

5 Leslie Horn, “Poachers Can Use Your Geotagged Safari Photos to Hunt Down Rhinos,” Gizmodo.com, May 7, 2014,
accessed May 23, 2014, http://gizmodo.com/poachers-can-use-your-geotagged-safari-photos-to-hunt-d-1572906832.
6 See, for example, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323744604578470900844821388.html?mod=
itp, accessed May 2013.