SDRNews: Google Steps Over the Line

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Google Oversteps

by Andrew McCaskey
Google Latitude Crosses the Line

PC World says that Google Latitude has been ” updated to make it a smidge creepier than before. Now Latitude tracks your location history and alerts you when your friends are nearby — two add-ons that could make stalking that much easier!. Location History is the creepiest of all, so thankfully this service is only for personal use and is not shared with Latitude friends. The way it works is Google pinpoints your trail of breadcrumbs and determines where you were by where you paused.” The service is currently private, the rise in popularity of location-based services such as Loopt, Stalqer and FourSquare may convince Google to later selectively publicize Location History to friends.

But wait, there’s more – -the other add-on to Latitude is Location Alerts – to let you know that a friend (or enemy) is not in his or her usual location. Alerts establishes frequently-visited locations, so you won’t get messages when someone is in an expected place like at home or in the office. PC World continues ” Google says it might take a week or so to learn your behaviors, but believe: it will definitely learn your behaviors. . .”

About a year ago we did a TPN Roundtable session on LifeCasting and digital archive which basically captured the entire digital stream from an individual by video, photos, keyboard, sound and sensor. Both acquisition and storage are now sufficiently advanced to handle both with consumer grade equipment. At the time, I concluded that this is one service that my newly born grandson did not need. I think that I have found one that I can agree not even his Grandpa needs or wants.

No matter how “non-evil” Google is in it’s current incarnation, it’s not guaranteed to be resistant to a Court Order for my lifetime – much less his.

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