Google's Latitude service - fun way to keep up with your friends, or major questions about civil rights?

[Eric Garland]

Google has just launched a new service that allows you to track your friends using their cell phones.

A harmless diversion, or is this something more important in terms of civil rights, the law, and society?

What do you think?

[Jason]

Next level, albiet super creepy social networking...

[Sally Church]

It sounds appealing, especially to those of us who have used BrightKite for a while but there are worrying consequences, not just with Google Latitude, but also GPS tracking on cellphones.

For example, take a look here, here and here.

Scary, very scary if you are a libertarian.

[Eric Garland]

I think the creepy factor has finally been engaged. For a while, we've known it was possible to do from the central location where the service is run - but now, 24/7 surveillance is being made available to everybody.

With great knowledge comes great responsibility...

[James Lee]

"Privacy" will become one of those quaint 20th century concepts, right up there with "retirement" and "social security".

At some point, we'll all be scratching our heads wondering what all the fuss about "civil liberties" was about...

[Eric Garland]

Well, since people have been hot for "civil rights" since the Magna Carta, and for that matter since Socrates, I hope we keep it around a bit longer.

James Lee said:

"Privacy" will become one of those quaint 20th century concepts, right up there with "retirement" and "social security".

At some point, we'll all be scratching our heads wondering what all the fuss about "civil liberties" was about...

[August Jackson]

To James' point, I've been hearing sociologists and historians discussing how privacy has historically been a much more nuanced notion than it was in the later half of the twentieth century. The analogy they go back to is the small town or the tight-knit neighborhood. I can tell you from growing up in a small town of under 200 people that everybody knew everybody else's business in a way that would disturb me even today with the frankness and openness of platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

The point about civil rights and liberties is definitely taken. Where I think these interests come into play in commercial location-based technology will be the degree to which the individual has the choice and the means to define how, when and under what circumstances their personal and location information is shared. Right now some of that flexibility is challenged by web caching and the fact that our privacy relies on others respecting our rights to privacy as well (example: friends knowing not to share and tag embarrassing pictures on Facebook). Both technical norms and cultural norms will need to evolve. Finally, much like a credit report, each person should have access themselves to all of the information about them from all entities, public and private.

All that said, I'm looking forward to loading Latitude on my iPhone when the Google App update drops.

[James Lee]

Here is a thought - is privacy overrated? To what extent are transparency and privacy mutually exclusive? Why do we value privacy - and is this primarily a cultural value?