This article would like to use your current location

Note:  This was originally published in the MBAA Newsletter 8/31/2010  


The main concept I wanted to emphasize was "geotagging," like any new technology, can be exciting, but companies (and individuals) should always be sensitive to privacy rights and what information is shared. 

Last week, the news media was abuzz with California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Fourth
Amendment rights were not violated in a case where Drug Enforcement Agents planted a GPS device, in the middle of the night, on a suspected drug dealer’s car parked in his driveway.  It brings up interesting conversation with friends with how far the government and law enforcement should go in tracking the  movements of private citizens.

What’s surprising to me, however, is how easily people will give up similar, sensitive personal information through various social mediums, most specifically through a new tech called geotagging.”  Wikipedia defines this as, “the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds.”  Geotagging is predominant in pictures taken on smartphones.  For example, on an iPhone, when you “allow” the camera to “use your current location,” innocuous latitude/longitude data is stored within pictures, and can be easily retrieved when posted online.  The website icanstalku.com was created by computer programmers and security consultants to raise awareness about potential problems arising from this.  The site displays a real time RSS feed that reads the encrypted data of tweets including geotagged pictures.  The result being “translated” tweets showing latitude/longitude data, or an actual address which the unsuspecting person just posted.  The site also predominantly includes instructions on how to disable this feature on your phone.

Social media sites such as Foursquare.com are based around the concept of sharing your location with “friends” by “checking-in” to local businesses.  The concept being you can receive loyalty points from the business, post comments, *Try the Turtle Mochasippi…it’s totally delish and low-cal :-)!” or even see other users within the area.  The system is fully integrated with Twitter and Facebook, and the user has privacy controls of whether or not he/she is visible at certain times, and who can see postings.  Speaking of our beloved Facebook, it has started to allow us to post little maps and “geotag” friends in status updates.

The question really lies in whether or not this new level of connectivity is exciting and useful, or frivolous and potentially unsafe.  Just as we’ve been trained to not post risqué content that could get us in trouble in our careers, we should also be cognizant and assess what sensitive information, such as location based data, we share with our digital peers.  Whether you think Google Street View is a wonderful navigation aid, or you’re holed up in a lead bunker watching Enemy of the State, privacy rights in an exponentially intrusive technological world will be an ongoing debate that will no doubt become even more intense in the days to come.