Less than a week after global technology leaders addressed questions about issues including the future of privacy and control, Google delivered its answer. Latitude is Google's new service that allows you to "see where your friends are." Users who wish may have their location automatically plotted on Google Maps. Automatic location is available today on smartphones including Blackberry, some S60 handsets, Windows Mobile devices, and wired computers (with some exceptions). Automatic location is expected on the iPhone "very soon."
While there has been a host of critics who are extremely alarmed about the loss of privacy that Latitude causes, Latitude is an opt-in service from the ground up. Users will not be visible unless they specifically enable the service; users can control who sees their location, the granularity with which their location appears, users can even spoof the service entirely (I'm in Iceland, at the moment), and users can "hide" themselves at any time. Google says that location information will not be made available to advertisers. -Stuart Whitaker
Monday, February 9, 2009
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