Deliberate amnesia

[unixronin]

You:  "Tell all my friends where I am right now."

Google Latitude:  "Done."

You:  "OK, now forget it."

Google Latitude:  "...Forget what?"

Google's Latitude now tells your friends where you are, but forgets where you've been, and doesn't keep logs.

The intention is to make sure Latitude doesn't become an honeypot for cops wanting to be able to easily find out where you have been or even say the names of everyone who attended, or was near, a political protest.

[...]

The government tells courts, almost always in secret proceedings, that it is entitled to location records without a warrant, even if the person involved isn't even a suspect in an investigation.  The government argues you have no privacy interest in the data since you already told it to your phone company.

What Loopt — and now Google — are asserting is this: when you tell your friends where you are, you are using a public conveyance to communicate privately.  And, just as it would if it wanted to record your phone call or read your e-mail, the government needs to get a wiretap order.  That's even tougher to get than a search warrant.

(Via bruce_schneier)

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

But I generally don't have a clue where I am . . .

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

Can we trust Google on this, or is it possible that it's just a false front?

I'd like to believe them...this would have been pretty cool on our last two road trips to/from the South, to show everyone our crazy backway routes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Ah, but that's exactly what They WANT you to wonder.

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

Curses!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If you want to log where you've been, you'll need something that logs. Like, say, a Garmin (or similar-featured) GPS.

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

Why, I just happen to have recently acquired a Garmin. So, you have to manually input your Lat/Long? I'm still reading the google page trying to figure out how it works. Can it read your location from cell phone tower blips?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

fiik, we still don't own a GPS :)

(though I think one would be a big help for Cymru ... there's only so much I can do trying to locate her and remote route for her in real-time over a cell call using Google Maps)

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

I got an older bare bones model etrex off of ebay. I have no plans to use it for road nav, but I figured if I ever got really off track in the woods, it might come in handy for route trace-back.

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I'm wondering. Google already does all my websurfing, and it already has all my email. Now they want to be my long-distance service. Yeah it's wonderful and convenient and everything and all "Don't Be Evul" and stuff, but is it really a good idea to trust *one* company with all that shit?

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

No

But the Siren song of efficiency and bundling is ver...

[stuffs wax in ears, lashes self to mast]

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

That's nice, but until the wireless carriers agree to this it's basically meaningless. They can and do keep track of your location, and have a history of turning this information over to the Feds for processing. Not quite as accurate as GPS, of course.

T-10 years until history begins...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That's nice, but until the wireless carriers agree to this it's basically meaningless. They can and do keep track of your location, and have a history of turning this information over to the Feds for processing.

The phone companies don't just roll over for the government, they tell the government it needn't bother with a condom.

T-10 years until history begins...

I think I'm missing a reference.

The panopticon, part 1

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

We are living in pre-history; all of what we create online now is being recorded, but it's approximately the same fidelity as cave paintings. In a few years, when full video of everyone's life is recorded and cataloged for future parsing and retrieval, history will begin. People will wonder what happened in our times, but will have only scattered press clippings to go on -- rather than simply being able to rewind the collective datastream to that time and place. People who didn't record their lives will be viewed the same as people who didn't get biographies written about them now -- people we only know second-hand.

Continuously publishing your location is an important part of this future, though with advanced image recognition and continuous video you can grok location from context.

Re: The panopticon, part 1

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I think I'd sooner be a mysterious unknown.

Re: The panopticon, part 1

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's going to be an opt-out, although maybe we'll be dead before it gets that far.

Wow, I finally found a reason to look forward to death....


*scratches item off list*

Re: The panopticon, part 1

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Sure, there's always an opt-out. Just don't own a cell phone, a GPS device, or a laptop computer, and you're unplugged. They can't track you if they don't know that you're there to be tracked. Of course, it might make your legal status something close to the equal of today's homeless people, but you've opt'ed out!

Re: The panopticon, part 1

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention that, since living in either an Earth House in New Mexico or a cabin in the mountains has always been a semi-ambition.


No, not like that guy. Although I could see going as far as writing a manifesto that no one would probably ever take too seriously.

Re: The panopticon, part 1

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

There seriously are times when I've thought of going so far as to build an underground home, with only the minimum necessary ventilation and not connected to any utility grid. With six feet of earth packed around all sides and over the top of the house, it would need no heating or cooling - constant temp of 68F all year long. If it's built close to a stream that is deep enough to bathe in, all you need after that is to raise/grow your own food. Poof - you've totally disappeared. Particularly if someone else owns the land and is letting you stay there in exchange for the food.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

If the data is gone, what good is it to go back and get a warrant? All you can do is track from that point forward. Perhaps this is Google's way of saying, "Don't bother to subpoena our records, they do not exist." That very public announcement could save massive legal headaches for many years to come. If if becomes a model for other carriers to follow, if only to reduce legal costs, I am all for it.