If You could have a real leather or metal leash locked on Your property in public, many of you would definitely do it. It is an ultimate symbol of ownership, control and power. A leash, hooked to the locked collar of your property, symbolises the ownership of that property. Perhaps on the way into the shopping mall, seeing the sign “No pets and animals allowed”, You would tie/lock the leash to a spot in the back street. i am guessing your property wouldn’t be able to move away physically and mentally from where you decided to put them on hold. Having a physical leash would definitely be a thrill. However, in reality we can’t do that due to many constraints by society and public decency. But, a Virtual leash may be one thing that You could try.

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL LEASH?

We’re living in an age of technological marvels, and a virtual leash is the idea of tracking every movement of your submissive. Kind of like the technology used for the ankle-locked GPS tracking device for prisoners, but these days we’re all carrying our own surveillance device in our pocket – our phone.

As long as you have a smartphone with you – and a battery pack – everyone can easily start to track anyone in the world. And, having GPS tracking allows you to impose a subconscious power of control, which we will discuss later.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR A VIRTUAL LEASH

If You are using Apple devices, there is already a default GPS tracking system in iOS. Simply attain the Apple ID and password from the person you want to track, and logging into the Apple account will allow you to see where the device is located, as long as “Find My Phone” permissions are switched on. – Click here for more information

If you’re not an Apple user, or you just hate logging in and out, a more elegant solution may be the Life 360 app. It can be installed on both iOS and Android products. Simply send an invitation and you are good to go. In addition to tracking, this app has messaging functions and tracks the phone’s battery life. Having a extra battery pack is recommended, because it does eat up juice as it updates GPS in the background all the time. You can also set emergency contacts that allow you to do a quick report to the person you love when an emergency happens  – Click here for more information

VANILLA LEASHES

The idea of GPS Tracking isn’t a new thing. Parents want to keep track of their kids, and couples like to keep track of their spouses too. While your kids are on their way home, you can send them a message to remind them to get milk and bread along the way. Or if your spouse is in the office, you know it’s probably best not to call them with reminders about groceries. Of course, when you’ve forgotten where you left your phone, you also get your kids to help you find it through GPS.

VIRTUAL LEASHES FOR A 24/7 POWER DYNAMIC

The idea of Virtual Leash can better be explained by Foucault’s theories of Panopticon, power, control and discipline in Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. He tracks down the process of ways that power has shifted and transformed throughout recent history, through deconstructing the creation of Panopticon, and how it is similar to school, government, and nation. In Foucault’s metaphor, we are always aware of the possibility of being observed, which results in a kind of self-created disciplinary society, where this threat of observation becomes the equivalent of the bars, chains and locks used in prisons. In other words, the existence of Power and Discipline is no longer contained in the physical realm; that is tangible, and easy to monitor and reform, but is transformed into a rather intangible, self-imagined, and invisible existence; that is hard to monitor and difficult to notice.

For Foucault, the real danger was not necessarily that individuals are repressed by the social order but that they are “carefully fabricated in it” (Foucault, 1977), and because there is a penetration of power into the behaviour of individuals. Power becomes more efficient through the mechanisms of observation, with knowledge following suit, always in search of “new objects of knowledge over all the surfaces on which power is exercised
Foucault and His Panopticon by Moya K. Mason

In our world of BDSM and D/s, the virtual leash could be an adaption of that concept of Power and Panopticon and could dovetail nicely with a 24/7 BDSM dynamic, where the person is constantly being monitored and slowly merged into part of the subconsciousness of Power and Discipline.

Foucault aside, of course it helps all the Evil Masters to plan their surprise (consensual) rape scene, kidnap scene, and any number of other pleasurable encounters. Imagine having an unknown number sending you a text when you walk past an abandoned region, asking you to stop? Or using a different number to tell Your sub to strip and kneel in a backstreet? The possibilities are there for you to imagine.