Hi Michael, <br>to my mind the concerns surrounding surveillance in this case aren't limited to privacy, but extend beyond that to include human rights issues like workers' rights. Surveillance by ones' employers may not be optional if one wants to keep the job. Concerns have also been raised about Google's security safeguards -- quoting:<br>
<br>However, London-based Privacy International says it has identified
several potential methods for covertly tracking the locations of mobile
devices without the knowledge or consent of their users.<br><br>[edit]<br><p>
For example, the privacy watchdog said enterprises could provide their
workers with phones on which Google Latitude has already been enabled,
allowing the movements of staff members to be tracked by senior
management without their knowledge. Any phone left unattended would be
vulnerable to having Google Latitude installed without the knowledge of
the handset's owner, the group warned. Additionally, phones given as
gifts would potentially be subject to the same privacy violations. </p><p>
<span class="subhead">
Masking Movements
</span>
</p><p>
The documentation for Google Latitude says users can mask their
movements any time they wish. "You can hide your current location from
all friends or from individual friends at any time," Google said. "When
you hide your location, your friends will not see your photo icon on a
map and will not see a location for you in their list view." </p><p>
But Privacy International warns that the same masking technology could
be used by others to prevent smartphone users from realizing they are
being tracked.
</p><p>"The only means of minimizing this threat might be a regular
message sent to a phone advising that it has been Latitude-enabled,"
the watchdog said. "However, according to Google, this function is
available only in certain circumstances" and may only apply to "certain
unspecified phone types." </p> As it stands now, Davies noted, 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," Davies said.<br><br><a href="http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Misuse-of-Google-Latitude-Feared/story.xhtml?story_id=012001GSW8JC">http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Misuse-of-Google-Latitude-Feared/story.xhtml?story_id=012001GSW8JC</a><br>
<br><br>Best,<br><br>Lucia<br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 8:04 PM, Michael Zimmer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:zimmerm@uwm.edu">zimmerm@uwm.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="">
Rarely am I a Google apologist when it comes to privacy, but they've actually done a pretty good job with this one. It is fully opt-in, you can fine tune precisely who gets to see your location (and how granular you want that location-data to be), and, according to their own privacy help video [1], Google doesn't keep a log of all your pings to the system. <div>
<br></div><div>[1] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9H4xaTspaQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9H4xaTspaQ</a></div><div><br><div> <span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div>
<div>--</div><div>Michael Zimmer, PhD</div><div>Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies</div><div>Associate, Center for Information Policy Research</div><div>University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee</div><div>e: <a href="mailto:zimmerm@uwm.edu" target="_blank">zimmerm@uwm.edu</a></div>
<div>w: <a href="http://www.michaelzimmer.org" target="_blank">www.michaelzimmer.org</a></div></div><div><br></div></span><br> </div><br><div><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><div>On Feb 5, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Lucia Sommer wrote:</div>
<br></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">another one for the normalization-of-surveillance files:<br><br>Spy on Your Workers with Google Latitude<br><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/158975/spy_on_your_workers_with_google_latitude.html" target="_blank">http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/158975/spy_on_your_workers_with_google_latitude.html</a><br clear="all">
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