Google Latitude mobile tracker under fire
Despite Google Latitude having only just been released, it has already come in for a wave of criticism from privacy campaigners.
Critics say that Latitude, which tracks users’ locations via their mobile phone signal, could in theory be abused by employers, suspicious partners or even paedophiles.
When Latitude is turned on, the location of friends, family or colleagues is highlighted on the map using icons - often with a small image of their face.
Having anticipated the complaints this time around (its Street View service caused a similar controversy last year), Google has built-in various options to allow users to modify their privacy settings; sharing their location with only chosen friends, switching between showing exact or city-level location, or switching it off altogether.
Despite the inclusion of these options, critics are still convinced Latitude poses a danger. Among the suggestions are that it could be unknowingly installed on a phone, with the user unaware they are being tracked by anyone who has accessed their phone. There is also a suspicion that some employers may force employees to activate the service on work phones.
“[The safety measures would be useless] if Latitude could be enabled by a second party without a user’s knowledge or consent.” comment campaign group Privacy International.
Google is not the first company to launch a ‘location sharing’ service - Sportstracker and Brightkite offer similar functionality for GPS-enabled smartphones - but it seems the ubiquity of Google causes people to sit up and take notice.
Importantly, the Latitude system is compatible with most smartphones and works with Google Maps to pinpoint a user’s location via triangulation with up to 24 phone masts and Wi-Fi points - no GPS functionality is required.
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