I have always had a phone with GPS. I have always considered this normal. Then stories stated coming out on tracking, the most recent called the ‘Marauder’s Map’ a Google Chrome extension based off Facebook’s location services made by a Harvard Student, this can track you and your friends to minutes, days, months and even years (Parkinson, 2015).
The New York Times performed a large investigative report into these apps. Over 4 months it was found that phone was tracked on average every 21 minutes and anonymous data sent to 75 companies (Valentino-DeVries, Singer, Keller & Krolik, 2018). In their investigation they contacted the companies who claimed that only raw data was sent to build patterns which is received from permission for location services which also allows for the information to be sold (Valentino-DeVries, Singer, Keller & Krolik, 2018). This disturbs me by not being completely transparent in the requests.
Google is by far the worst offender in location privacy as it has been found that records of locations are kept regardless of the location history turned on or off (Associate Press, 2018). Google Maps can still record location markers which are required to be removed manually by the consumer to allow advertisers to view data to make more money (Associate Press, 2018). Google Maps has also received several lawsuits in America for personal photos on street view however was within the rights as they were taken from public streets (Gordon, Silva, 2011 p.135). Several countries in Europe banned this from occurring and Australia and Canada only allowed street view with the conditions that all faces, and number plates be blurred (Gordon, Silva, 2011, p.135). This has become a philosophy in Google that “it’s better to apologise than ask permission” (Gordon, Silva, 2011 p.137).
Governments have also benefitted from the use of GPS tracking. Authorities in America made 1.3 million requests for subscriber information in 2011 alone (Boghosian, 2013 p. 236). As mobile phones have an ‘International Mobile Subscriber Identity’ that can be tracked from the carrier to pull signals or triangulated if non-GPS to a few metres accuracy even in dense urban areas (Boghosian, 2013 p.236). Legislations have been put forward in governments to protect location privacy and declined as they would have required consent for collection of locations on apps, ban stalking apps and madate that mobile services provide third-party and advertising who they disclose information to (Boghosian, 2013 p.238).
As Gordon and Silva stated, “There is a paradox in net locality – it personalises relationships to physical spaces but also threatens and secures one’s control of space,” This makes a fear of losing one’s privacy from the loss of control (2011, p.134). If I lose my privacy, I know no different as I never had it in the first place. On the flipside if I am worried how would I feel with it. It feels like an endless cycle.
References
Associated Press. (2018). Google records your location even when you tell it not to. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-location-tracking-android-iphone-mobile
Boghosian, H. (2013). Spying on Democracy (pp. 236, 238). San Francisco: City Lights Publishers.
Gordon, E., & Silva, A. (2011). Net Locality : Why Location Matters in a Networked World (pp. 134, 135, 137). Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Parkinson, H. (2015). Marauders Map: the Chrome app that stalks Facebook Messenger users. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/28/marauders-map-chrome-app-tracks-facebook-messenger
Valentino-DeVries, J., Singer, N., Keller, M., & Krolik, A. (2018). Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/business/location-data-privacy-apps.html
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