Google Latitude Spies on exact Geographic Location in Real Time

[Antaletriangle]

http://www.naturalnews.com/025522.html

Has the age of electronic stalking begun? Google has announced a new service called Latitude that triangulates the real-time position of any mobile phone user and displays their location online, in real time, for other people to see.

Google says it's a "100 percent opt in" service that only works if you sign up for it, but there's something fishy about all this they're not saying: How is it that Google has access to cell phone tower triangulation data in the first place?

A typical programmer (or even a company) can't simply announce they're creating an online mapping program and get access to cell phone tower triangulation data. This requires some sort of high-level data interchange between Google and telecommunications companies -- you know, the kind of data interchange normally reserved for the FBI or CIA. That Google now has this technology is downright spooky (and "spook" is the right word here...).

Technically, it means that Google engineers now have access to the physical location of virtually every mobile phone user in the country. Even if they're not making your location public, the point is they could if they wanted to.

There is a way to thwart this technology, of course: Remove the battery from your mobile phone if you don't want to be tracked. Turning it off isn't good enough, either: You actually have to physically remove the battery to be sure you're not being tracked.


A history of your geographic movements?
By the way, remember how the U.S. government once subpoenaed Google to turn over details of 100 million searches? There's no reason why the government couldn't one day subpoena Google's cell phone triangulation logs and request an archived history of the movements of one particular person.

Where were you on December 31, 2008? Google probably has a record of that somewhere. Every store you shopped at, every house you visited and every route you drove to work for the past year has potentially been logged and archived. This is all data that could one day be used against you in a court of law. The data could even reveal you were speeding down the interstate, ignoring speed limit laws.

With Latitude, Google has opened a can of worms into issues of personal privacy and automated surveillance. They've also given the public new surveillance tools that people can use to stalk each other online.

Note to husbands everywhere: Your days of "going bowling with the guys" are history. If your wife finds out about Latitude and signs you up, you're now on a new electronic leash. Forget about calling home every hour -- your wife knows where you are anyway! The same goes for wives who want to "hang out with the girls" to get away from a paranoid husband. The era of domestic stalking has been unleashed, and the implications are spooky.

[Antaletriangle]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...y-mobiles.html

We know where you are: Google lets you track friends and family through their mobiles
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 1:31 AM on 05th February 2009

Google's upgraded mapping system will let people use mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with others
Google has launched a tracking service that lets parents keep an eye on their children - and wives keep tabs on their husbands - round the clock.

The software allows owners of mobile phones or BlackBerry hand-held computers to have their whereabouts followed by family and friends anywhere around the world.

Once the service is activated, the location of a person's phone appears as a blue dot on a map on the screen of whoever is allowed to monitor them.

The Latitude feature is being promoted by Google as a 'fun' way to 'keep tabs on someone special'.

However, it will raise concerns about privacy - and whether it is encouraging a Big Brother culture.

The software is included in the latest version of Google maps for mobiles - software that allows mobile phone owners to browse maps on the go.

'This adds a social flavour to Google maps and makes it more fun,' said Steve Lee, a Google product manager.

Google insisted there was no threat to privacy.

It was up to each user to decide whether to make their location visible to other people - and who could monitor their location. The service was designed to help people keep in touch, a spokesman added.

Once switched on, it plots the user's location by using information from mobile phone towers and global positional systems.


Google Latitude is available free in the UK, US, including New York, above, and 24 other countries but only works with certain phones and networks
If a phone is equipped with GPS, then it pinpoints the location to within a few yards.

If it isn't, the location is only accurate to hundreds of yards - or in rural areas with few mobile phone masts, several miles. It requires each user to turn on the tracking system, and then choose who they want to share their location with.

People can decide to accept or reject requests from other people to share locations.

Google says the service is not open to abuse.

It is promising not to store any information about its users' movements.

Only the last location picked up by the tracking service will be stored centrally. A Google spokesman said: 'You can choose to hide your location from any person, or just give them a city-wide location.

'You can also type in your location manually.

'That means someone can put in their office, when really they are down the pub.'
Google said it developed the tracking system's privacy settings after holding talks with charities helping the victims of domestic abuse.

There had been fears that violent husbands could insist their wives use the feature to keep track of their movements.

It will initially be available on BlackBerry mobile phones and devices running the Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 operating systems, such as most Nokia phones.

It will be available to iPhone users in the next few weeks and will work abroad in 26 countries, including the United States.

[Swanny]

I wonder if this works on any phone or just those with GPS??
I had a SE C702 which had GPS but I dropped it in the canal, I took that as a sign not to get a phone with GPS and now have a really old phone.
Mind you the GPS on the c702 was rubbish, I had the maps on it and it wasn't accurate at all.
The iPhone is called "The must have tracking device."

When the SHTF my phone is going out th window.

[piers2210]

hahahahaha nice one swanny

[THE eXchanger]

yeah, pay about
$80+ month for the privledge of being tracked

sure does NOT make a lot of sense to me

[alyscat]

Maybe the ptb who are going to be disappearances should have this LOL
alys

[Czymra]

I spotted that story in the paper on the tube (yes I committed the sin of reading from a paper held by another person, shoot me) and turned off my iPhone's "Location Services".
The fact that my battery lasts at least twice as long now really makes me think.....
Then again, if the **** hits the fan I already know that I'm just going to have to dump it. I just want to know if they can do the same with my laptop.

[Czymra]

Originally Posted by Swanny

I wonder if this works on any phone or just those with GPS??
I had a SE C702 which had GPS but I dropped it in the canal, I took that as a sign not to get a phone with GPS and now have a really old phone.
Mind you the GPS on the c702 was rubbish, I had the maps on it and it wasn't accurate at all.
The iPhone is called "The must have tracking device."

When the SHTF my phone is going out th window.

Any phone that has a battery inserted and some power left can be triangulated, I hear.
GPS is precise but triangulation is when they figure your vicinity from the next cellphone towers that transfer your signal.

WHY telephones allow this to happen even when they're off we have to ask Nokia et al... but I just heard that. Better safe than sorry.

I just heard about this today too, via CNET. "Google lures notables including Al Gore and Jimmy Buffett to the launch of Google Earth 5.0, which adds a view of the ocean to the virtual exploration software."

Apart from the pervasive tracking issues I have re citizen surveillance & databases, there may be something here for Titanic sister ship enthusiasts, because it has bathymetric maps (http://www.charts.gc.ca/pub/en/products/core.cfm).

SAN FRANCISCO--The newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences, now spruced up with a giant Google Maps locator pushpin, hosted the launch of Google Earth 5 Monday. The standout feature for the new mapping and geographic exploration software is the addition of information for the planet's oceans, which previously was a blank blue.

http://news.cnet.com/2300-1038_3-100...ml?tag=nl.e434