Map As Metaphor In a Location-Aware Mobile World

mattnyc99 writes "Two weeks after the launch of Google Latitude, your inbox is probably full of requests and privacy advocates probably have even more concerns than they did at first. But some tech pundits are already seeing the bigger picture of a digital lifestyle based around the always-on, GPS-based mobile map. The NYTimes's John Markoff has a great piece in today's Science Times about the map as metaphor for a time when 'future systems will probably begin to blur the boundaries between the display and the real world.' Over at Esquire.com's Tech Therapist, Erik Sofge talks to the geek behind Latitude and offers a similar reality check: 'Latitude will be precisely as annoying as e-mail and social networking sites and cell phones themselves — and just as useful. What won't stop Latitude, or the wider rollout of location-based tracking, is bitching about it. These are juggernauts of free, culture-reorienting technology. And you and me, we are but posts on the massive Facebook profile of history.'"

Comments

Re:Hold on now

[MichaelSmith]

None of these systems have a checkbox too stop my idiot sister forwarding crap to me and implicitly enrolling me in her facebook centric lifestyle.

I can turn it off but I can't turn off the people who turn it on. For example as a result of this connection there are now pictures of me on facebook. Meta data in image files will soon include positioning information. I don't get a choice about this information being distributed.

You won't see me signing up for this

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who values their privacy won't sign up for this. In related news, I've also deleted my facebook. Anyone who's been following the tech news knows what they are aiming for. People want databases that know everything about you at all times, since somehow this data will change the world for the better. Such databases will inevitably be abused; people who disagree need to take a few history classes. I'm sick of the data mining and invasions of privacy that are done already.

Am I the only one...

[pwnies]

...who doesn't mind the small breach of privacy, plus a few ads on the side, in order to provide myself and possibly some friends some interesting and beneficial functionality?

Oh sure there's the possibility that a corporation/stalker will be watching me at all times, but hey, stalkers sometimes have free candy (and they offer me rides in their van!).

Re:Am I the only one...

[Jherek Carnelian]

Am I the only one who doesn't mind the small breach of privacy...

Privacy is like Pandora's Box - people are all too willing to open it up when they are blissfully ignorant of the consequences. But once they finally do start to feel the pain of having set their privacy loose on the wind it is too late to try to stuff it all back into the box again.

So choose wisely, just because you can't think of any particularly severe repercussions today doesn't mean there won't be any in the future once your data is already far beyond your control.

Those who don't learn from history

[Brandybuck]

What won't stop Latitude, or the wider rollout of location-based tracking, is bitching about it.

What will stop it, is people not using it. Or far more likely, people not using it in ways that the pundits and marketdroids insist it must be used.

History is full examples of technology that simply were not used. But more common are examples of technology being used in ways no one ever foresaw. I have no doubt that location-awareness will be ubiquitous in future culture, but I'm willing to bet good money that it WON'T be used the way the babbling class tells us it's going to be used.

Requests?

[Zouden]

>Two weeks after the launch of Google Latitude, your inbox is probably full of requests

Mine isn't. I don't think any of my friends have even heard of it. Not everyone jumps on the latest social trend as soon as it's announced. I still don't know anyone who uses Twitter.

Re:Yes.

[vux984]

And all so entirely boring that people are happy to provide that information to you over a cup of tea.

That was just the beginning. And even that is far more than most people would be comfortable with absolutely *everyone* being able to know.

You apply for car insurance, and are charged extra because they analyze all the places your car has been seen parked and decide you are high risk...

You apply for life insurance, and are charged extra because they analyze all the places you have been seen, and decide you are higher risk...

You cut off the wrong jerk on the freeway, and your 6 year old daughter gets a threatening phone call at school...

What is your point?

The there is a MASSIVE difference between being in the background of a picture in someone's cubicle, and having every photo of you ever taken being indexed along with millions of photos of others and thoroughly data-mined. Anyone who suggests they are equivalent is an idiot.

A little data is meaningless. A lot of data becomes information. Facebook and Google have scary amounts of data to mine for information.