Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom are having a collective stroke regarding the possible privacy implications of Google Latitude.
A motion was filed this morning asking the government to investigate the “privacy implications of Google Latitude and to take action to ensure Latitude does not represent a threat to privacy.”
Product manager for Google Latitude in Europe, Mat Balez, told IT PRO that some of Parliament’s concern involves the possibility that the friend-finding software could be covertly installed on someone’s mobile phone. However, users are alerted whenever the program is running, and have the option to hide their location or disable the service whenever they want. Not to mention the fact that you have to opt-in to use Latitude in the first place.
Google takes these issues seriously, but I think those that take issue with ‘privacy’ implications should just not use the service in the first place.
