It is called Google Latitude.
A mobile phone tracking service that lets parents keep an eye on their children – and wives keep tabs on their husbands – 24 hours a day has been launched by Google.
The software allows owners of cellphones or BlackBerry hand-held computers to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends anywhere around the world.
Once the service is activated, a user’s location appears as a blue dot on a map on the device’s screen.
The Latitude feature is being promoted by Google as an ‘fun’ way to ‘keep tabs on someone special’.
Of course it fucking is. You can’t sell something by telling them it’s a bad thing can you?
rubbish i didnt even track the girl i wanted down
this is messed up. dont they understand comlications that it can cause allowing people to track people that arent supposed to
It’s not just google. They were not even first.
See here:
http://www.themobiletracker.com/english/index.html
To be fair, according to wikipedia, and I’ll quote:
“Latitude allows a mobile phone user to allow certain other people on his or her Gmail contact list to track where he or she is. These people can track the user (or more accurately, his or her phone)”
So, in other words the “target” is letting friends and family know where he is, it’s a choice.
“the user can control the accuracy and details of what each of the other users can see. An exact location can be allowed, or it can be limited to identifying the city only. For privacy, it can also be turned off by the user”
So yeah of course it’s fun, you can turn it off you want.
You COULD invite us to making a stance regarding how MAYBE it can open the door to other tracking systens less optional and more mandatory.