Google Maps To Add 'Friend' GPS Tracking

Henway writes "Google is adding the option to Google Maps to place your whereabouts either via cell phone towers or GPS. Think 'locator beacon.' Paraphrased: This would be good for people wanting to let their friends know where they are or for parents wanting to know where their children are at all times."

Comments

Don't need it

[Sax Maniac]

Sorry, I already have this. I just log into my bank account's website, look at the recent charges, and that tells me where my wife is.

Re:Don't need it

[von_rick]

But does it tell you who she is with? Now if you were tracking your best friend AND your wife, you'd know why those things listed in your account statement never show up at your house.

Sweet!

[eln]

Oh man, I hope my girlfriend gets on this! It will make it SO much easier to track her. I am so sick of hiding in the bushes across the street from her house for three hours just to find out she wasn't even home! And this is going to save me a fortune on text messages...I won't need to text her every 3 minutes asking where she is if I have Google Maps to tell me!

Seriously, this is going to revolutionize our relationship. I know we're going to be so happy with this new tracking technology! The restraining order says no, but your Google Maps icon says yes!

Re:I don't think it means what they think it means

[pm_rat_poison]

Don't kid yourself. The women who know where their men are are called widows.

So that means

[Bruiser80]

when I get a phone call or text message from my wife, I have to drive back to work before answering it and giving her my location? Awesome. The bar won't be happy :-)

My generation was lucky

[mcgrew]

We didn't even have cell phones when I was a teeneger. Of course, there were no child molesters or terrorists. All we had to fear was Russia throwing nukes at us.

Yes, there were probably as many pederasts as today, and anyone in Great Britain knows there were terrorists then, but the media didn't hype them like they do today. I'd bet kids are SAFER now than we were then, but you wouldn't know it from the mainstream media.

Re:My generation was lucky

[Pentavirate]

I watched the preview and it shows a woman arguing that there is an equal chance of being struck by lightning as being kidnapped (non-family). A little research shows that:

* You have a 1 in 560 chance of being kidnapped by a non-family member and of those 1/5 will be murdered.
* You have a 1 in 280,000 chance of being struck by lightning.
* You have a 1 in 100 chance of dying in a car accident.

While the lady in the video was grossly overestimating the chances of being struck by lightning, there may not be much cause to freak your kids out about "stranger danger". They need to know the information and how to protect themselves, but they definitely shouldn't be made to be hermits and more than they shouldn't be prevented from riding in cars.

One thing is for sure, though. Don't get your statistics from Penn and Teller videos.

Re:My generation was lucky

[clong83]

From your link on kidsfightingchance, I was able to calculate: 11.4 out of 1000 kids are reported missing each year, which comes out to about 800000 cases. Of those, 69000 are actually abducted. Of those, 18% are by non-family. Of those, 37% are by non-friends. The way I crunch the numbers...

11.4/1000 * 69/800* .18 * .37 = 0.0000654

Or,about 1 in 15000 chance of being abducted by a stranger. Even if you go non-family only, it's only about 1 per 10000... Where did you get 1 in 560?? Granted, it's nowhere near the remoteness of a lightning strike, but the odds of an abduction by a non-family member are remote at best.

Re:My generation was lucky

[Ironica]

Nor should you get your statistics from websites that, on the very same page, list conflicting data:

Of the 800,000 children reported missing annually, approximately 69,000 are abducted:
Family members account for the majority of these reported cases (82 percent)
Non-family abductions account for 12,000 of these reported cases (18 percent)

Farther down on the same page:

Each year 3,600 to 4,200 children are abducted by someone outside the family; 1/2 of them are age 12 or older; 2/3 are female; at least 19% of these abductors are not strangers to their victims-Finklehor, p. 10. *The chance of a minor being kidnapped by a stranger is 1 in 560, by a family member 1 in 180. - Discover Magazine as reported by Gannett News Service 5/28/96.

Now, if you take that 12,000 number, multiply it by 18 (years of childhood), and then take that result (216,000) and determine the percentage that represents of the child population in the US (82,457,018... I grabbed a number off the Census website that's for the 2007 American Community survey, but I had to total up percentages of population by age group and then take that percentage of the total population), you get about a .26% chance of being kidnapped by a stranger... but 1 in 560 is more like .17%. And the ratio of those two percentages don't match the annual statistics, where one lists a number that's 3-4 times as high as the other. Notice that the much higher number is listed prominently at the top of the page, without a footnote as to the conflicting measures from other sources.

Re:Turn off your phone...

[Constantine XVI]

No, if you're really paranoid you DON'T CARRY A CELL PHONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Think about it: if you don't have a phone, you can't be tracked through it, period.

Re:So, kind of like Britekite?

[sexconker]

No guys! This is GOOGLE! It's new and innovative!!

Re:I don't think it means what they think it means

[ArcherB]

Current location:
Your mom.

Yep! Google confirms it. Since my mother is 60, I appreciate you paying attention to her. And even though she considers you to be only a small appetizer, you do keep her from calling me for about 3 minutes.