Mobile Phones and Privacy
Posted by Greg on December 1, 2009
Last week I was helping someone with her Android phone (like the newly-released and much-hyped Droid). She had opened up the Google Maps and was poking around in the settings. She asked, “what’s this Latitude thing?”
“Latitude sets up your phone so you can share its GPS location on the Internet,” I replied.
“So people can see where I am all the time? I don’t want that!
With the growth of social networking and the growing number of smartphones in people’s pockets and purses, the risk of unintentionally publishing too much information about you and your whereabouts grows as well.
Google Latitude (pictured at left) is an excellent example of a useful social networking tool that could be misused. When Latitude is turned on your phone reports your location back to Google, where it’s published to your friends. Your friends’ locations are reported back to your phone, so you can see who’s nearby. Great if you want to know if any of your friends are nearby and up for a cup of coffee. Not so great if you don’t want someone to know you’ve visited a clinic or shelter.
Apple’s MobileMe provides a great service to locate your iPhone if it’s ever stolen. “Find My iPhone” allows you to log into a web site and see the phone’s location in real time. While it does require a MobileMe login and password to be set up by you (the phone’s owner), if an abuser has access to your computer and/or passwords, they can also track your phone’s movements with no indication on the phone that they’re tracking you. Additionally, if someone gains access to your MobileMe account they can remotely lock your iPhone, making it unusable as well.
Many Twitter smartphone clients (Twitteriffic is one example) have the option to automatically update your Twitter location with the phone’s current GPS latitude and longitude whenever you post. Location-based social networks like BrightKite and Shizzow take it a step further, even updating your Facebook status with your location. Photos taken with many smartphones are often geotagged so that not only is the date and time the picture was taken embedded within the image file, but also the location. That location information is then available if you upload the photos to Facebook or Flickr.
Tools like Latitude, BrightKite and Twitter are great for keeping in touch with your friends and “Find My iPhone” is a nice way to find a lost phone. But if not used carefully these tools can also reveal more about your activities than you might want. I’m not saying these tools are bad or evil - I use most of them regularly myself - I’m just saying be deliberate and careful in how you use them.
- “There’s an app for that ...” Be sure you understand exactly what the app does before you install it or sign up for the service. If you’re concerned or unclear, ask someone. Knowledge is power - the better you understand what your phone is doing, the better off you’ll be.
- It’s very easy to accidentally make information public on the web. I’ve mistakenly replied publicly to a private message on Twitter on more than one occasion. I’ve had friends accidentally post photos from their Blackberry on Facebook that were, well, rather private. Don’t post private information on social networks - even in a “private” or “direct” message - it’s too easy to accidentally expose it to the world. The adage “never post anything online that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times” really is true.
- Keep your passwords for services like MobileMe and social networks private and safe. Don’t share them with anyone. If someone else has your password, they can see and/or reveal the details of your activities.
- By default tell apps or services to never share your location. You can always turn it on later if you want, but you can’t un-reveal your location after the fact. Only turn on location-based services on your phone whenever you’re actually using them. If Latitude or BrightKite isn’t turned on, they can’t inadvertently publish your location.
Comic courtesy xkcd.com