One year after this post,  I wrote an update here.

Senator Wants Tracking Devices For Kids With Autism – Disability Scoop.

A U.S. senator is asking the Justice Department to provide tracking devices to parents who wish to monitor their children with autism and other developmental disorders who wander.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wants the U.S. Department of Justice to offer grant money to local law enforcement agencies so that they can distribute tracking devices to parents who would like the technology in order to help find their children if they go missing.

Being honest, I don’t like this. Yes, I quantify self up to the eyeballs, and yes, if I had kids I’d see very sensible reasons in favor of having drones follow them around… but I’m uneasy about tracking of an individual being prescribed by outside agency. It’s very much one thing for a guardian to say “we have this issue, so I’m going to spend (£/$)100 to get a locator becon” and another for a social worker to say “For people like your ward, we recommend this tracking becon…”

If you’d like some more general discussion on the topic… I’m inclined to point you in the direction of this paper that talks about the general uses of the data, and this paper that talks about the potential problems of using the data.