February 6, 2009 by Jack Fox
Okay, so this probably isn’t the biggest surprise in the world but a London based group called Privacy International has spoken out against Google Latitude, the new feature that allows people to track their friends and family’s whereabouts using their mobile phones.
Despite Google’s claims that people can turn the service off at any time and have full control of who can see their whereabouts, Privacy International believe that the system is open to abuse.
“Latitude appears to present an immediate privacy threat… The danger arises when a second party can gain physical access to a user’s phone and enables Latitude without the owner’s knowledge.” – Privacy International, statement.
Privacy International’s argument is this, even with the safeguards Google have put in place Latitude can still be used to track someone without their knowledge. For instance, there is nothing to stop an employer giving Latitude enabled phones to their employees but not telling them, it might also be possible to enable Latitude on an untended phone and then have access to that person’s whereabouts without their knowledge.
“As it stands right now, Latitude could be a gift to stalkers, prying employers, jealous partners and obsessive friends. The dangers to a user’s privacy and security are as limitless as the imagination of those who would abuse this technology.”
A little dramatic maybe, but they do have a point.
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