Comment: EOTrackMe

Warb,
Easy mate it is in your Public Member Home page - just click on the MyProfile tab at the top and click on the button to open your Public Profile page - this is your specific page on the site and will always be you. On this page are all YOUR specific bits and pieces, EOTrackMe, Blogs, Places, User Treks, Classifieds etc etc.

You share this page address with your family and friends and they visit the page to see what you are up to.

David

Oh yeah the embed cannot be done on a private/password protected output as you have found out.

David

Thanks, I've got it all sorted now, but it worries me that I have to make things visible to get it to work. Is nobody else concerned that this results in an easy way to see when people are away and a house is empty? It might be OK for grey nomads with no house (rented out etc.) but anybody who sets up a profile with enough information to make them recognizable, and then adds a tracking system that shows when they are away from home is surely asking for trouble? Locally we have seen break-ins that have allegedly been linked to people posting their whereabouts on Facebook and so informing the local undesirables that they aren't at home.....

I suppose the answer is to remove any information from the profile that might allow people to identify us!

Ok but I would ask where are you embedding the tracking map? It is public information on other site also is it not? This is the reason for having to remove the password as a person visits some other site I have no way to valid the request easily. It can be done but involves more than a simple embed. So it is public on some other site but not EO, you are more likely to be identifiable on your other site than EO?

Additionally with the use of a GeoFence around your property how much personally identifiable information is available to the public to work out who you are? That is the reason for a screenname and then all other aspects of your account are hidden and not available. So it would take a screenname or rig pic to work out who you are but that in no way identifies where you live and a wide extent GeoFence will ensure that your location is never published.

Can someone identify you that knows you well enough from a screenname/pic?

What else would you like the system to do, I am open to all feedback on this as I thought we had a good system in this respect but always willing to change/update?

David

The site from which I am linking is my own website, and access is controlled by username and password solely for people that I trust. Obviously there is the possibility that one of them might distribute their username, but that is unlikely as they understand the issues.

As you say, a blank profile and a geofence do indeed prevent anybody from getting too much information, but equally that limits the ability of people to share information. It is also depends on their location as to how much is given away. For example, for someone living in Sydney a 1km geofence might include thousands of houses, but in a rural area 10km might only cover a couple. If that is added to a "useful" profile which includes a few photo's, a car make and model etc., then we are starting to narrow the odds.

The problem that I see is that the "undesirable" can, at present, look at the map and see those people who are local to them. A few clicks will then show whether those people have multiple tracks starting in that location (rather than just passing through), after which a bit of digging might indicate when and where the empty house is located.

It is a difficult subject. The website gains much from people sharing information, articles, photo's etc., but if that information allows them to be identified, and seen to be away from home, it could compromise their security.

I suppose, for me, the best option would be the ability to embed a link without needing to make the track public, and also a search of tracking "name" such that with no public profile I can tell somebody to search for a particular ID and then enter the password. Thus no information is available to people to whom I have not specifically given my tracking name. Perhaps the option to segregate the tracking name from the forum name might also be useful - that would allow the user to post pictures and articles without also telling the world they weren't at home (if they didn't want to!).

Even more simple, perhaps, would be to remove the ability to click on the map and get to the profile of a user. I am not sure what benefit there is in the public being able to drill down and see "who" is in a particular town, and where they came from.... If the trackee wants to share that information, surely they would have provided their friends with a suitable link?

I would also recommend a large geofence, whether by default or by new user "guidance"! But that is not specific to my problem, that's just a general warning!

Great input, Ok so if we were to do an embed that handles password protected data what would you expect it to do? On your site should the embed be open and visible or should it need a password to be entered to show the result? Also are you using the Image or the Map embed?

Profile/Device connection - we can make certain separations but I need to digest this some more. There is nothing to stop people from having a few profiles on the system and having the secure tracking user profile hidden from all (as already available). Then interacting via a more public profile - yes that would mean two memberships. But let me think more on this.

To make any Geofence work better I suggest you do not centre it on your address but maybe on your suburb so that if you leave/enter via different roads the centre is not your actual house. Different for rural property I guess we can make the GeoFence entry allow more distance but what would be suitable 25/50/100km?
David

The password protected embed could work either with an encoded password or a user entered one. Either would be acceptable, as in my case the user needs a password to see the page on my site, so if they need to enter one for EOTrackMe I can remove the page password, if the password is embedded I can leave the page password in place. So either way they need a single password to access the data. At present I am using the full mapping embed.

Multiple profiles is OK, but if they are not linked (sub-profiles?) then you risk sending multiple newsletter emails etc. which could get messy. It also relies on the user to manage both profiles and make sure they use the correct one for any given task.

For rural properties, depending on just how rural they are, I would guess 50km radius would be OK. That wouldn't cater to the "million acre" scale properties, but for most people it should cover enough ground to make it hard to pick an address. The off-center geofence is a good idea, though for rural folks, as you hinted, a 20km radius geofence might still not include a junction. I think in our case a 15km radius would include a single junction in each direction - which is still not much protection - so we would probably need a 25km radius to be off-center and still include multiple roads! A 50km radius would include a town, which is better....

The password protected embed is by fair the simplest however it is still open to decoding - just much more difficult without the encryption key. I have 3DES encryption technology already installed on the site so can easily encode and decode the password. I actually think I would be happier to encode the device id in some form as this is harder to work out than a password and will not change for the life of the device. If I went to password protected the external resource then I would have much more work to do to build a password entry system that was available from the embedded resource, however saying this it is the best way to solve the issue.

In your case it would be a password field on the map maybe the RHS column that would ask for the device password else it would be just showing a map of AU with nothing on it. For the image embeds it would be a textbox inside a padlock image or something but the embed would have to be converted to an IFRAME and not a simple image.

I will work on these over the next day or so and see what I come up with.

As for the GeoFence size I have already adjusted it to 50km in 500m increments, so go and make it what ever size suits you best.

Thanks for the feedback
David

Ok I have now adjusted the system and the MAP embed function supports password protected tracking data - you do not need to adjust the code you already have embedded on your site, just set-up the password on your tracking device and it should work as expected. I have also adjusted the embed page to allow selection of the password protected device in the MAP embed.

One note: As you are a valid ExplorOz user and if you have the remember Me turned on you will not get asked for the password even on your remote site as it passes the validation straight through via browser cookie. So to test that it works please log off from ExplorOz to remove the cookie and close/re-open your browser to be sure.

Let me know if it works for you as I have not tested it on a third party site as I have not been given any embedded user pages to test with. I have checked it with my own stuff but I can never be 100% sure it is working as expected.

Again thanks for the feedback and hopefully these updates will produce the desired effect.

David

That seems to work very nicely. I have tested it in IE10 (I'll check in Firefox later) and it looks good. Thank you!

One other thing I noticed, and it's not as important but more a "nice to have", the geofences look like they might work at the tracking end, rather than the display end. I have increased my geofence to 50km, as discussed above, but it has made no difference to my "live tracking" display. My previous track still ends at the old 5km geofence. I haven't tested a new track as yet, but from what I'm seeing my assumption would be that the system prevents tracking inside the geofence, but displays all the available data? Obviously I can delete my old track, but it might be nicer if the geofence could be applied retrospectively - i.e. it worked at the point of display, rather than the point of recording? That would also allow temporary geofences to be built, for example if the user was camping for a few days and leaving equipment unattended. Such a fence could protect the current location, but allow the full track to be displayed when the user moved on.

On a similar note, but again just a "nice to have", perhaps if the fences worked at the point of display the system could also allow a mobile fence based on the last known position - so the actual position of the vehicle was protected without compromising the track when the trip was completed.

Obviously these are less important now that I can have a password protected embed, but may still be useful to users with a public track?

Thanks again for your help!

Excellent feedback thanks.

Yes the geofences are inbound and filter the data when it is being received from any device. I like you thinking on this but will need to be very careful to not effect system output performance. It is far less intensive to filter when data is received periodically than to filter files with thousands of points each time they are output to the screen. I do like it however and think the ability to have the full data recorded in the system and output filter is a really great idea, it opens up all sorts of possibilities.

I will put this into the next round of updates/thoughts on the tracking system. This will not be too far away as this is a very strong growth area of the system at the moment so wanting to keep forward momentum on the product.

Glad the update solved your main issues and look forward to any further input/ideas you come up with. I am working on Blog password protection systems now to allow password protection in Blog entries and this will be done in the next day or two.

David

Just to add an extra degree of challenge, after much discussion we have decided to use my wife's iphone to track us. So I've downloaded the UTrackMe app, which I already have on my iphone....... It's completely different to my version, it no longer has the ability to select EOTrackMe (it requires the URL to be entered as per the Blackberry instructions) and now requires money to be spent (admittedly only $1.99) before allowing any of the advanced settings to be accessed. Also the download link from the instructions on the EOTrackMe for iPhone page don't work anymore, and the instructions are no longer relevant. The new app seems far more complex than the older version.

I'm still investigating whether the new version actually works - it's not made easy as I have no mobile coverage where I live!!

I did get a note from the developer that it was going to change but have not looked as yet - you do not need to pay the paid one adds a map viewer which you do not need. I am installing this version and will advise.

I was going to dump this product and write my own version but time is just hard to find as the iPhone app is totally different language and api from an Android app.

The old uTrackMe did not well out of service. This version was meant to fix it - I will load it and test it.
David

In fact the "beacon settings" which are all the timings for the data send are not available without paying. There are now 3 different sub-components that need money to activate; the beacon settings, the viewer and the .csv export facility.....

The new app supposedly works via wifi as well as through the phone network, so I should be able to make it work at home

I have deleted my old device on EOTrackMe, set up my wife's iPhone with UTrackMe as per the iPhone app v3 instructions, but it is giving me a "your member record does not exist" error, and nothing to register on the EOTrackMe profile as yet. The new app has an "add to post" yes/no switch, which says it adds the username and password to the data, and tells me it should be enabled for EOTrackMe. But then the v3 EOTrackMe info says I should leave username and password blank. It gives the same error (mentioned above) with this on or off!

I have it running - you do not need the settings package nor the CSV package for EOTrackMe the default free part is all you need. I am emailing the developer now anyway to confirm what the default settings are.

In the setup screens:
URL: http://eotrackme.com/track/position.aspx
USER ID: Mxxxx (xxx your member number)
Add to POST Data: ON
Max Request Size: 200 is a good choice

Turn on the publish option and that should be it.

OK, I'll try those settings - I was using the other URL as found in the "v3" instructions. The phone has just gone to town, so I'll change it when my wife gets home again!

The beacon settings actually seem quite useful. They allow discrete settings for wifi and phone network, both on battery and when powered. So we can update more frequently when the phone is in the cradle, without killing the battery when it's not!

I am trying to determine the default settings for the free version. I have emailed the developer - does the paid app show you what it was when you load it. I can buy it and will but I really need to know what it is before I change it.

I have also updated the documentation tab in EOTrackMe with the changes for the new version.

I have also asked the developer for clarification as when I turn the tracking off using the switch on the app - the GPS does not shutdown and stays running - this seems very wrong to me and I am after clarification of this.

David

I paid for the Settings and think the settings shown by default will be what is installed - it seems ok at these settings and will ensure a reasonable level of tracking. But the GPS not shutting off when tracking is off is a worry my phone is dropping battery % faster even with the program set to Tracking Off!

David

Have had several emails now with the developer and there is some strange naming of the Sleep/Trigger thing that will need some explaining on the settings page.

I also noticed a bug in the headings - when you open setting External is say Battery and visa versa. Here is the response from Ben to my what the Sleep vs Trigger thing is all about:
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Ouch, that's a stupid mistake. It's not even that. It's just that the title of the views is the wrong way around.

Sleep is a period of time that the application is doing nothing and not responding to position updates. It's what controls the maximum update rate when you are on the move.

Trigger timeout is the number of seconds the application is going to wait for a "trigger". If a trigger occurs (== a change in position is detected) or the timeout expires a new position fix will be determined. So trigger timeout controls the minimum update rate.

So for example:
Sleep = 10s
Trigger = 60s

If you are not moving the app will send a position update every 70s (not counting communication and gps fix overhead etc)
If you are moving the app will send a position update every 10s

Wrt to the "GPS Fix Timeout" (in case you were wondering). When uTrackMe decides it's a good moment to determine your location (after a trigger or a trigger timeout) it will not accept the first GPS position fix it received from the OS but will wait for a maximum of gpsFixTimeout for a position with accuracy equal to or better than gpsAccuracyRequired. If no such accurate position is received it will use the last know value.
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I will attended to a documentation page update on Monday next week once I play with the new version over the weekend.

PS: I had a response about the GPS icon in the system also as below:
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The icon and settings you are referring to indicate the application is still using the location services framework, which does not necessarily mean it is using the GPS.

When you disable tracking I deregister for position updates. That stops the application from receiving high precision position updates and effectively disables the GPS in the context of the app.

But for the autostart feature I rely on so called significant position updates. These events will relaunch the application in the event you start moving around (typically more than 1km) while the app was killed by the OS to free up resources. Significant position updates do not require GPS. Instead these events are triggered by changes in WiFi or the Cell tower your phone is connected to. However from a location services (and privacy) point of view the application is still using the location services, and that's the icon you are seeing.
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But even having said this my battery power is going faster then usual.
David

I have now made all the settings reflect what has been discussed above. The app seems to be working, but it still gives me the same error ("Your member record: has expired or does not exist.") and nothing is showing on my profile on Exploroz. Is it possible that the website will not register a new device after I deleted the old one?

Certainly the app seems to be working, it shows me a track on the iPhone but seems unable to get that data through to Exploroz!

Have you put in your member number in the UserID with a capital M prefix and no space at the end?

Aha!

There are two fields that seem relevant. The first is "Name" in the "Identity" section, and the second is "Username" in "Authentication". I had put the Mnumber in the "Name" field, but now I have moved it to the "Username" field and it works...

I have also generated a new embed code, but that link produces an ExplorOz error when I try to access it. It could simply be that there is no data to display?

There should not be an error - does it work on the generate embed code page? Send me the embed page details and password to david at exploroz.com and I will take a look.

Yes Username will make this clear in the instructions.

I had a few more emails about the GPS indicator and Ben assures me it is doing nothing but my battery is going faster. He is going to release a new update shortly that will unregister the handler that is causing the GPS light to be on even if tracking is set to off. Not sure when this will come out but it is being done anyway.

David

OK, as I suspected the issue is that there was no data. I temporarily removed my geofence and allowed the system to record a few minutes of data, and now the embed code works.

Interestingly, having reinstated my geofence and cleared the data from EOTrackMe the error no longer occurs - I just get the map of Australia and no tracking.

At this point it all seems to be working. Thanks!

Depends on your settings but generally yes.