Privacy Concerns Raised Over Latitude

You probably saw this coming a mile away. Since the announcement of Google Latitude yesterday, certain parties have raised concerns regarding privacy. In today's Internet-savvy world, it's becoming easier to probe into other people's lives without them knowing. Google's new tracking program is only contributing to that simplicity. But I thought tracking only works if I agree to it first, you may wonder. There are ways to get around that, apparently.

Privacy International director Simon Davies gives the example of employers who might give phones to employees with Latitude enabled.

"With Latitude, Google has taken steps toward privacy that it has hitherto not taken," Mr Davies told BBC News. "The problem is that they launched the services without allowing all phones to be notified."

It looks like Google only enabled the notification for BlackBerry users. Messages on the said devices will inform users that Latitude is working and tracking. Support for other platforms will be added within a week. To tell you the truth, I think we're only beginning to scratch the surface on the privacy issues that Latitude is going to raise.

Source

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