Location, Location, Location

[piccolomondo]

Dear Aunt Disorienta,

Google has just added a new feature called "My Location" to Google Maps for mobile phones to pinpoint your location. It works like GPS, but instead of connecting to a satellite, it gathers information by triangulating between cell towers to determine your location. So your phone doesn't need to be GPS enabled and since it is using cell towers your location should work internationally -- it all depends on the data.




Yours,
xxx
piccolomondo

[piccolomondo]

P.S.:
Oh, and while Google could theoretically use this information to stalk you, the company claims that it doesn't keep tabs on your personal information and location.


But Papa Noel on his way around the world on Christmas Eve, you'll be able to track using Google tools like: Google Maps, Google Earth, iGoogle and YouTube in a partnership with Noth American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).

And in this clip, you can see Santa flying over various landmarks around the world:



The countdown begins December 1st on NORAD's website, where families can find a new kid-friendly game or activity every day until December 24th. And starting at 1:00 am PST on December 24th, you'll be able to track Santa's trip in real time.

[via googleblog]

[Bent_Bladi]

isnt' that exactly how lots of "wanted" people got assassinated? cuz they picked up their phone and called someone - within minutes, the car they were in went BOOM

u can never hide.... they'll always find you

[piccolomondo]

Where.gov: Government Surveillance Using Location Technology

As location-based services become ubiquitous, so will government demands for location information as part of criminal and intelligence investigations. Indeed, real-time location tracking of cell phones by the government, and subpoenas for cell phone records indicating location, are already routine investigative techniques. What are a company's rights and obligations when it comes to assisting in government surveillance or disclosing location data? How does the law regulate the handling of such data? What are the latest legal cases dealing with this cutting edge privacy issue?

[00:12:42, 5.8MB]

EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston, who has been fighting the government's attempts to track cell phones in real-time without a search warrant, discusses these issues, laying out the legal landscape surrounding location surveillance by the government while suggesting certain service architectures that could reduce the chances of the government targeting a company for surveillance assistance.

[piccolomondo]

Schneier on surveillance and the value of privacy

Last week, revelation of yet another NSA surveillance effort against the American people has rekindled the privacy debate. Those in favor of these programs have trotted out the same rhetorical question we hear every time privacy advocates oppose ID checks, video cameras, massive databases, data mining, and other wholesale surveillance measures:

"If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"

Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not.
Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

Two proverbs say it best:
"Quis custodiet custodes ipsos?" ("Who watches the watchers?")
and
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said,

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man,
I would find something in them to have him hanged."

Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time.

Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.

We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need. [...]

[Read the full essay and rich exchange of comments]

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