Are the benefits worth the risk?
The good news is, Twitter Geotagging is an opt in service, only available at this time with third party apps. Apps that use it are right now include Birdfeed, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Seesmic Web and a few others. And you can only tweet location-based information from your smartphone. Some like the service, some have mixed feelings about it and others think it is creepy. It should be noted that Geotagging is an emerging technology.
Because of personal safety and privacy issues, I think it could be is dangerous to constantly tell the world where you are.
What is Geotagging?
Geotagging with Twitter adds a link that marks your exact location on Google Maps. This is not specific to Twitter. Geotagging is used by sites such as Flickr, YouTube and Picasa. It is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds. In essence Geotagging can pinpoint where you are in various ways if you implement it on your cell phone.
About cell phone tracking in general:
The E911 (Enhanced 911) law allows emergency personnel to find you if you are in an accident or need help. The law relating to E911 is relatively straightforward. It allows carriers to provide tracking location information to third parties for E911 emergency calls only. Tracking cannot be used under any other circumstances whatsoever without the consent of the cell phone owner. Things to consider: A quick search reveals numerous software applications for parents to track their children. There is sufficient information to indicate that tracking could easily be used for iniquitous activity. E911 is a controversial law. It could save your life or ruin it. For more information about E911 see this FCC site.
Concerns
Here is what Twitter has to say about Geotagging.
Things you should consider:
Geotagging uses your exact location.
Anyone can see it: even if you delete it, we cannot guarantee it will be removed from every partner.
Turning it off does not remove historical data. You can, however, remove all of your prior data.
In an excellent article by David Johnson at PoynterOnline he points out safety issues for journalists. Tish Grier voices her concerns. “This is really kind of creepy, and could have some negative implications for women, who are often targets of stalkers. Twitter isn’t necessarily Geotagging just information, it’s essentially geotagging people, which is how most Twitter users view their twitter streams.”
Benefits
Location awareness services can be beneficial in locating criminals or even lost children. Some photographers like it for use on Flickr or other pic sharing sites. Having location included in the metadata of a photo is beneficial for some. As noted, it will not improve your photography, but you’ll know where you were when you made the shot. Another use, if you follow groups touring the world and you want to know where they are, you can see their location when they tweet. I have no doubt that more applications will be quickly manufactured.
This is what Twitter claims as beneficial for Geotagging.
Geotagging your tweets will allow you to:
Tweet about places and add context to your tweets.
Connect with other users at a local level.
Join the local conversation.
You can see a list of location based social networking sites at BDNooZ: based on location or that location is a key part of their features.
Wrap-up
Geotagging is not a technology I can see as beneficial in any way for the average person. Knowing where anyone is or was when a certain event happened, especially in this age of “total information awareness” has a certain ring of Orwellian trepidation.
This reminds me of implanting a medical records RFID chip in people. Yes, if paramedics could quickly access your med records it might save your life. On the other hand, it is incredibly easy for any hacker to scan them, sell them, make them public. The obvious question is, where do we draw the line between privacy and safety vs convenience and benefits?
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Hal,
Thanks for bringing this subject up. I was aware that 'geotagging' existed, but didn't know what it really was. I think more people who are brought up with smart phones and technologies like geotagging are quite comfortable broadcasting their lives for the world to see. This may be part of the 'needing to belong' (my current blog post) phenomenon, or just attention seeking behavior.
What makes this a concern is that when you're younger, we tend to ignore consequences and dive straight into 'cool' things.
Do you think we're (as a whole) choosing to head toward a 1984 big brother world?
When I was in high school 1984 was required reading. It scared the hell out of me even as a teen. I believe over the last 10 years we have arrived and living in a “1984″ world. Not only are we under constant scrutiny (cameras, feedback from things like geotagging, RFID, even our TVs and a broken constitution) but we embrace a lot of this. Some of the personal info people put online is incredible to me. I don't want my life to be an open book. Apparently many people don't care. I am curious to see what all this will look like in another 10 years.
The irony is, we can't find Bin Laden.
Thanks for the insightful comment.
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