Dude, where's my car?

A confession.  So, about three years ago I was at a local bar and had one too many drinks.  Being the responsible gal I am, I do not drink and drive.  However, when a sober friend of mind offered to drive my car home for me, I appreciatively agreed.  Two key facts- one, I left earlier than my friend, (we did not ride together).  Two, my generous friend did not realize when he offered his services that I had a manual shift. Therefore,  after a short distance he gave up and safely parked my car in a commercial parking lot.

Fast-forward to the next morning.  I woke up and in a clear state of mind asked my boyfriend to bring me to my car.  First, I had to call my friend from the previous night to find out where he had left my vehicle.  Oh, but where is my phone?  I must have left it in my car.  Bummer, I do not have a way to reach my friend.  Another bummer, where is my car?  As I cannot reach my friend, I do not know where my car was parked.  I know the general route he must have taken, but he could have pulled over at any point during the fifteen minutes it took to get to my house.  Aimlessly driving, my last option.

So, I put some thought into solving this problem.  My phone was most likely in my car.  I happen to have the Sprint family locator on my phone.  I went online and Sprint could give me the exact location where I had left my phone.  After I figured out where my phone was, I google mapped that location and viewed recent satellite images.  I happily saw my car parked in a parking lot about five minutes from the bar.  My boyfriend drove me to that location and as i got into my car I was grateful for once to have left my phone behind.  

The technology involved made this unique situation much more easy to resolve.  However, it does make you think about the capacity to see without being seen that this technology allows us.  While I was very happy to be able to find my car, it is frightening to think that anyone else could access this information.  It was only necessary for me to access my Sprint account to get this image of my location.   This real life experience has left me feeling the potential power created by the effects of the panopticon available from this technology.