[iDC] Spy on Your Workers with Google Latitude

Sun Feb 8 18:30:07 UTC 2009

Of course you're right that surveillance predates the technology. What
interests me is the way these technologies become so rapidly normalized as
friendly consumer-driven conveniences before there's any opportunity to
assess their potential impact. Given the history of government and corporate
surveillance of citizens in the US, I do think these things are worth
thinking about. They can also be fertile ground for experimentation and
subversion by tactical media practitioners.

Best,

Lucia

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 10:50 PM, Michael Zimmer <zimmerm at uwm.edu> wrote:

> Threats of surveillance by employers, stalkers, obsessive friends, etc,
> have existed long before Latitude, and most methods are must easier to
> employ than surreptitiously activating a service on someone else's phone
>
> The PI press release is a bit over the top, IMO. Although I agree with them
> that GOOG should create a more persistent warning/reminder for users that
> the service is active. See <
> http://michaelzimmer.org/2009/02/06/with-latitude-google-actually-got-it-mostly-right/
> >
>
> -mz
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Zimmer, PhD
> Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies
> Associate, Center for Information Policy Research
> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> e: zimmerm at uwm.edu
> w: www.michaelzimmer.org
>
>
> On Feb 6, 2009, at 7:50 PM, Lucia Sommer wrote:
>
> Hi Michael,
> to my mind the concerns surrounding surveillance in this case aren't
> limited to privacy, but extend beyond that to include human rights issues
> like workers' rights. Surveillance by ones' employers may not be optional if
> one wants to keep the job. Concerns have also been raised about Google's
> security safeguards -- quoting:
>
> However, London-based Privacy International says it has identified several
> potential methods for covertly tracking the locations of mobile devices
> without the knowledge or consent of their users.
>
> [edit]
>
> For example, the privacy watchdog said enterprises could provide their
> workers with phones on which Google Latitude has already been enabled,
> allowing the movements of staff members to be tracked by senior management
> without their knowledge. Any phone left unattended would be vulnerable to
> having Google Latitude installed without the knowledge of the handset's
> owner, the group warned. Additionally, phones given as gifts would
> potentially be subject to the same privacy violations.
>
>  Masking Movements
>
> The documentation for Google Latitude says users can mask their movements
> any time they wish. "You can hide your current location from all friends or
> from individual friends at any time," Google said. "When you hide your
> location, your friends will not see your photo icon on a map and will not
> see a location for you in their list view."
>
> But Privacy International warns that the same masking technology could be
> used by others to prevent smartphone users from realizing they are being
> tracked.
>
> "The only means of minimizing this threat might be a regular message sent
> to a phone advising that it has been Latitude-enabled," the watchdog said.
> "However, according to Google, this function is available only in certain
> circumstances" and may only apply to "certain unspecified phone types."
> As it stands now, Davies noted, Latitude could be a gift to stalkers,
> prying employers, jealous partners, and obsessive friends. "The dangers to a
> user's privacy and security are as limitless as the imagination of those who
> would abuse this technology," Davies said.
>
>
> http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Misuse-of-Google-Latitude-Feared/story.xhtml?story_id=012001GSW8JC
>
>
> Best,
>
> Lucia
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 8:04 PM, Michael Zimmer <zimmerm at uwm.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Rarely am I a Google apologist when it comes to privacy, but they've
>> actually done a pretty good job with this one. It is fully opt-in, you can
>> fine tune precisely who gets to see your location (and how granular you want
>> that location-data to be), and, according to their own privacy help video
>> [1], Google doesn't keep a log of all your pings to the system.
>> [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9H4xaTspaQ
>>
>>  --
>> Michael Zimmer, PhD
>> Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies
>> Associate, Center for Information Policy Research
>> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
>> e: zimmerm at uwm.edu
>> w: www.michaelzimmer.org
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 5, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Lucia Sommer wrote:
>>
>> another one for the normalization-of-surveillance files:
>>
>> Spy on Your Workers with Google Latitude
>>
>> http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/158975/spy_on_your_workers_with_google_latitude.html
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Lucia Sommer
> 60 College Street
> Buffalo, NY 14201
> (716) 359-3061
>
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-- 
Lucia Sommer
60 College Street
Buffalo, NY 14201
(716) 359-3061
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