If it was being forced on us or was an "all or nothing" type of service, I could understand your concern but since you have an incredible amount of control over exactly how your location is determined and who gets access to it, I really don't see how you can justify your point that this is a bad thing?
But would you really want do disclose your precise location to Google and the world?
Then don't use it! It would be like saying the phone is bad because do you really want to give others the ability to ring your phone any time they dial your number?
Knowing that you are not at home for an undisclosed amount of time can lead to security issues within your own house.
I guess that's a problem if you are worried that one or more of your friends are likely to break into your house and steal your stuff. If that's the case, you have bigger problems than Latitude.
Not only that, students from time to time like a bit of privacy, and don?t want to be disturbed, especially when studying.
Then turn it off while you are studying? Besides, Latitude can't be used to actually bother you, it can only tell your friends where you are. They still have to call / email / drop by, any of which they can do without Latitude. Finally, Latitude does give you the ability to set a status. Set it to "I'm studying, leave me alone." and, if your friends care at all about you, they will leave you alone. If anything, this will help with your studying because without that status message, your friends might call you and disturb you.
One of the main problems I?ve seen so far is the data connectivity. To get an accurate location without GPS is to use the in-house mobile triangulation. This requires a data, 3G or GPRS connection to your service provider, which then downloads images to Google Maps on your phone. As you can imagine, this'll cost you quite a bit in the long run.
Google Maps all by itself requires a lot of data. While I don't have actual numbers, I would guess that the size of the maps that Google Maps downloads to your phone would dwarf the amount of data required for triangulation. However, if it is a really big concern, Latitude allows you to turn off automatic location (I believe by default it is off) and set your position manually. There. Now you have all the functionality of Latitude without any of the triangulation.
Finally, none of this is a concern for any of us who have unlimited (or near unlimited) monthly data plans.
We, the ZDNet bloggers, do indeed practice what we preach. Over the last couple of days, we’ve been playing around with Google Latitude as a group. As a student, I can see both the upsides and the downsides to this service. But my colleague and friend, Jen Leggio, the so-called “princess of all things social-media”, has already expressed her “grumbling nature” at such as service.
As Larry has already explained on Between the Lines, this is another way for Google getting social… but at what cost?
The concept is simple. You can have Google Maps running on your phone, which connects to your mobile network operator and, with your permission, uploads and projects to the world or your close-knit group of friends, either exactly where you are (via GPS) or roughly via the cell tower triangulation.
But would you really want do disclose your precise location to Google and the world?
Knowing that you are not at home for an undisclosed amount of time can lead to security issues within your own house. Not only that, students from time to time like a bit of privacy, and don’t want to be disturbed, especially when studying.
But on the other hand, knowing where your friends are if you’re on a holiday and lost in a big city would be essential. It’s also great for nights out; seeing groups of friends in one area of the city, whilst another group over the other side.
One of the main problems I’ve seen so far is the data connectivity. To get an accurate location without GPS is to use the in-house mobile triangulation. This requires a data, 3G or GPRS connection to your service provider, which then downloads images to Google Maps on your phone. As you can imagine, this’ll cost you quite a bit in the long run.
To keep Latitude running, it’ll slowly eat away at your monthly contract and end up costing you your left arm and your first born child.
Do we need another social network, if you could class this as one? Would you concern yourself with the privacy issues? Will this take off, or just add to the Big Brother society? Let me know.
