Location Tracking
Have you seen all the devices/applications that track your physical location and display it to your friends?
We’ve all seen those “where you at?” commercials for Boost Mobile, and today I noticed AOL is doing the same thing with it’s instant messenger service.
AOL is offering users of its AIM instant messaging service new capabilities to see where people on their buddy lists are physically located.
I’m not sure how I feel about these kinds of services. Obviously, I’m not suggesting that the government step in or anything, but I think this kind of thing should be dealt with in caution. I love new advances in technology, and for people who really like being “in touch” at all times with their buddies, this is ideal. Certainly adults can do what they want. If you want to broadcast to the world your physical location, by all means go for it. I personally would NEVER choose to do that because I value my privacy.
The danger comes with the unknowing kids who are oblivious to the fact that such a service could be used for less than ideal purposes, and parents that are oblivious to the service’s existence (as parents are too often, think myspace). Yes, I place the responsibility on the parents. It’s not the company’s job to police your children, it’s yours!!! And you’d better keep an eye out for what’s coming and be ready to regulate it heavily.
What do you think? Would you ever enable these kinds of features? Would you allow your children to enable them? Do you think they’re dangerous?
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There certainly exists a potential for abuse in such services. I shudder to imagine the ways in which a gifted hacker could make use of it, or even the government (especially in light of the abuses of federal law enforcement powers now coming to light). Perhaps worse, children might be gullible enough to allow a predator access to their location-finder. But there are many legitimate uses for it, and I am strongly opposed to limiting a useful technology because of the potential for abuse (I make exceptions for such things as developing nuclear weapons, because the danger simply so far outweighs the benefits).
The whole thing kinda creeps me out. I realize there are some legitimate uses for the technology (like GPS trackers in company delivery trucks for example) but I seriously doubt these companies are clearly communicating the dangers involved to their customers.
Most people don’t think about this things at all. These are the same people that when they see an internet pop-up that says “You have a virus. Click Here to Remove it.” They click away like blind lemmings. These same people will allow any identity thief, kidnapper or pedophile access to their precise location at any point in time (and probably a lot of other personal info).
Why don’t we just go ahead and get the GPS chips implanted in our heads and make it convenient…
I guess what concerns me is that it always seems like the positive marketing spin is never really balanced by someone saying “Hey, be careful with this. It’s fun, but You could put your eye out…”