Google Latitude

Ever get that sneaky suspicion that someone is watching you?  It might be Google.  It might be your friends. It might even be your neighbor.  Creeped out yet?

If you are running around town with a smart phone in your pocket, one of the apps you can load up is Google Latitude.  With an Android phone, it's built into Google maps.  Latitude will track your location and allow you to "check in" to the places you visit.  It will also allow you to develop a friends list.  What's interesting about Latitude is that when everyone on your friends list is using it, you can use the map and visually see where everyone is at. . . at any time.  Creeped out yet?

I love technology and it's that part of me that says, "WOW! This is great!".  Well, I've never had anyone that I wanted to share that kind of data with until Cari upgraded to a smart phone last week.  She and I turned on Latitude and went about our day tracking each other.  It worked really well when you stopped to visit a location.  While on the move, it seemed to use cell towers to define your location and it could get a little off.

It was kinda cool.  I could look down and see that she was STILL at Walmart.  She could look at her phone and see that I was STILL on the couch.

We ran it for a day and then we sat down and talked about it.  One of my concerns was the effect on my phones battery.  These batteries were already stretched to lasting a day.  During our one day test I didn't see much of a drop in battery life.  Maybe an extra 7% was being used.  That doesn't count for more than an hour or so in my guess.  More of the battery drain I experienced came from constantly turning on the phone to see where people (Cari and I) were.  The screen is the biggest draw of power on these devices, so constantly turning the screen on to verify that I am sitting at home was pretty much a waste.

The next thing we talked about is, "What's the point?"  The fact is I go to work and come home.  I'm not a very exciting person to watch if you're tracking me.  Cari and I talk all the time and we already know where each other are pretty much all the time.  There's no point in Latitude.  If we were in college and trying to meet up with friends in town all the time, then maybe.

Then there's the creepy factor.  Even if you are the type to hit the town every night and want it to be easy for your friends to meet up with you, do you really want them to be able to track you like that? I'll tell you when I want to meet up with you by calling or texting you.  Imagine you are in Walmart shopping for for some new underwear and then a friend pops up to say hi.  They tell you that they were next door at the Dollar Store and noticed that you were in Walmart.  Maybe you weren't in the mood to get noticed buying pink panties.  Even if you are only sharing it with your best friend, how much can we trust the security of that data that Google is holding? Creeped out yet?

It's true, you can turn it on and off, but in my one day experiement it seemed like it's best used if you turn it on and leave it on. In fact, you can turn on a history feature that supposedly is only avaliable to yourself.  I logged onto Google Maps after my day of use and was able to see pin points of all the places I spent my day.  Latitude will even tell you how much time you spent at work and how much time at home.  While the technology aspect of this history interested me, it wasn't terribly exciting since I already knew where I was that day.  I already know how much time I spend at work or at home. 

At the end of our conversation we decided to turn it off.  Even if I was only sharing it with my best friend, how secure is that data?   I actually wasn't as creeped out about being tracked as Cari was.  For me it came down to "What's the point" and battery life.

In any case, even without Google Latitude - which is really cool - you can, and are, still be tracked every day by your smart phone. Creeped out yet?