[LINK] MacWorld: 'Three reasons why I won't use Google Latitude'

[Roger Clarke]

[The wires are running hot on this one.]

Three reasons why I won't use Google Latitude
by JR Raphael, PC World
The following article is reprinted from PCWorld.com.
http://www.macworld.com/article/138655/2009/02/googlelatitude.html

Google unveiled its new mobile location tracking service, Google 
Latitude, on Wednesday-and it took me only a matter of minutes to 
determine it's one service I won't be using.

Google Latitude, if you haven't heard, lets you have your location 
monitored and shared in real-time with your friends, family, or 
whomever you choose. Once you sign up, GPS satellites and cell towers 
watch your whereabouts. They pull location data from your laptop or 
smartphone, then pinpoint you on a pretty little Google Map as you go 
about your day. (Though not available for the iPhone yet, Google 
promises that it's coming soon.)

While Google Latitude isn't the first mobile location tracking 
service to hit the market, it may be the first with the potential for 
mainstream and widespread adoption. Here are three reasons why I 
won't be hopping on the bandwagon.

1. It's just a little too friendly.

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't want every aspect of my life to be 
public domain-even when it comes to my close friends and family. I 
may be in the minority within the open book, share-it-all sentiment 
of the Web 2.0 world, but there's something nice about not having 
everyone knowing what I'm doing every minute of my day. If I run out 
for a quick cup of coffee, I may not want my buddy to see that I'm 
right around the corner from his house. If I tell someone I can't 
make it to dinner because I'm visiting a friend in the hospital, I 
don't want him to know that I'm really sitting at home eating 
biscuits.

The same goes for significant others-do you want your honey having a 
honing device on you 24/7? (Not that you'd be doing anything you 
don't want her to know about, of course.)

[She knows you were at Tiffany's 3 weeks before her birthday.  When 
you don't give her something from Tiffany's, what does she think?]

Now, Google Latitude does let you limit how specific of a location 
any given person can see. Let's face it, though: If you make the 
effort to get into a location-sharing relationship with someone, odds 
are you're both going to reveal more than just your current city. And 
if you suddenly disappear from the map or switch over to showing 
limited info, it's going to look a little strange.

Latitude also gives you the option of "faking" your location by 
manually setting it for anywhere you want. The last thing I need, 
though, is one more pain in the pants thing like that on my plate. Do 
I really want to be thinking nonstop about whether I should "mask" my 
location and create a high-tech white lie for any given movement of 
my day? Why not just avoid the hassle and not open that door to begin 
with?

2. Google already has enough dirt on me.

We've heard for years about how much Google knows about us. From 
cookies to calendars and crazy search queries, the G-gods probably 
know more about me than my own mother does. The last thing I need is 
Google also knowing where I am every second.

To be fair, Google is taking a lot of privacy precautions with 
Latitude. Reps promise only your most recent location is stored on 
Google's servers. Still, you know the data is there, and there's no 
telling how it could be used in the future. Whether it's the idea of 
targeted advertising or just the intangible creepy feeling I get 
knowing that someone could be watching me, I'll politely walk away 
from the opportunity.

3. Who knows who could end up getting the data?

Right now, the location data from Latitude stops at Google's servers. 
But who's to say what agency might demand it at some point down the 
line?

Think back to Google's battle with the government a few years ago. 
Officials wanted Google to turn over the text of all terms typed into 
its search site for a specific time period as part of a child 
pornography investigation. Google fought the order, but other search 
engines-specifically, those run by AOL, MSN, and Yahoo-didn't resist 
quite so much.

Then there was the time AOL accidentally posted three months' worth 
of search histories. People were able to actually identify specific 
users and see their searches, even contact them based on the 
information.
We don't anticipate any of that happening with the Latitude location 
data right now. But no one anticipated those instances happening back 
then, either. I'd rather not take the chance when it comes to 
something as sensitive as my every step. You just don't know who 
might get their hands on the data in the future, whether by subpoena 
or by accident.
So there you have it-the three reasons I won't be using Google 
Latitude. Maybe I'm overly protective of my privacy, but in an era 
when the verses to "Every Breath You Take" can serve as a literal 
description of a day, you've gotta hang on to what little you can.

Well, time to get back to work. If you need me, I'll be right here at 
my desk. That's my story, anyway-and, thanks to the lack of location 
tracking technology in my life, I'm sticking to it.


-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW