---

Google Latitude Uses a Global Positioning Map to Aid the Big Brother State.

---

Google Latitude is a new global positioning map feature for Google Maps on mobile devices.

It has been built to track people all over the world via their personal computers and cellular phones.

Does this mean we’re set to compromise another level of privacy?

Since 9/11, we’ve seen an explosion of surveillance technology being used in various ways.

Google Latitude is being marketed as a fun and exciting way to keep track of friends and is entirely on a voluntary basis.

The problem is that if you voluntarily sign up for Google Latitude, you agree to share your GPS tracking information with Google, not just your selected handful of friends.

While you may feel that your friends are trustworthy, it remains to be seen what Google will do with information pertaining to your whereabouts.

The search engine giant has previously been asked by the government to hand over a vast amount of data on its web searches.

What makes us think that Google can’t be coerced by the government to increase surveillance of the American population?

With laws like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 and its subsequent amendments still in circulation, it remains to be seen whether any of these fun new technologies are safe.

---

---

Google Global Positioning Map: A Security Hazard

CCTV cameras, RFID microchips and GPS receivers are everywhere, so why are we being offered more methods of surveillance?

By incorporating all methods of surveillance, the government can comprehensively track and monitor every person in America.

This will unavoidably lead to more obvious forms of state policing in the future.

Google offers such a wide range of services that it is frightening how much information the company has on us.

Security obsessed government agencies need only look at Google for all their information requirements.

Now, by using a global positioning map, Google Latitude ingeniously adds GPS surveillance to the wide range of your data that Google owns.

---

America: The Surveillance State

Google Latitude is an intimidating prospect in a country where laws such as the FISA Act are still relevant.

Former president George Bush’s signing of the FISA Amendments Act in 2008 saw the disposal of any judicial oversight of government surveillance and gave complete immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated the Bush Administration’s unconstitutional and warrantless wiretapping program.

Is the prospect of Google Latitude using a global positioning map to track people really that exciting?

No, because government will stop at nothing to increase surveillance, thereby increasing their own levels of power and control.

If a law prohibits them from doing so, they will create a new law that undermines it.

In a country that prides itself on democratic values and freedom, this is a sad state of affairs.

---

---