Google offers 'latitude' to track people

[katty]

more:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/04/earlyshow/leisure/gamesgadgetsgizmos/main4774320.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

(CBS) Google is releasing free software Wednesday that enables people to keep track of each other using their cell phones.

CNET got a sneak peek at it, and CNET-TV Senior Editor and Early Show contributor Natali Del Conte explained how it works on the show Tuesday.

She says "Latitude" uses GPS systems and what's called cell tower triangulation to do the job. The software seeks the closest three cell towers and, with GPS, combines the data to show where someone is.

It is designed to work on any phone with Internet capabilities, except the iPhone.

[sakabatou]

1. I sense invasion of privacy

[yorgatron]

2. i don't own a cel phone,and now i have another reason not to.

i'm not gonna have TV after Feb. so maybe i'll stop going online too,for the trifecta.

[deadmessengers]

3. Only for those who choose to allow their privacy to be invaded.

Since one would have to (voluntarily) sign up for, download, install, configure, and enable this application before it could send even the first bit of data to Google, I think the privacy concerns are pretty much moot. If it were enabled by default somehow, I would have concerns with this, but not the way it's set up now.