Privacy fears over Google tracker

Google's Latitude service which allows users to share their locations with elected friends, is drawing fire from a privacy watchdog, reports the BBC.

The "opt-in" Latitude service uses data from mobile phone masts, GPS, or wi-fi hardware to update a user's location automatically. Users can also manually set their advertised location anywhere they like, or turn the broadcast off altogether.

The service has raised a number of security concerns, as many users may not be aware that it is enabled.

Industry watchdog Privacy International argues that there are opportunities for abuse of the system for those who may not know that their phone is broadcasting its location.

Read Privacy international's Statement.

emily | 1:11 PM | Localisation |
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