Lib Dem MPs protest Google Latitude

"An insidious threat to our hard-won liberties"

10 March 2009 10:57 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The Liberal Democrats have filed an early day motion in parliament to ask the government to look into the "privacy implications" of Google's Latitude.

The Google Latitude service lets users give permission to selected friends or family to track their location at all times via their mobile phone.

"This system poses an insidious threat to our hard-won liberties. 24-hour surveillance and a Big Brother society are new realities", said Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Tom Brake.

"I urge MPs to support this EDM and encourage the government to take action to ensure that Latitude does not represent a threat to our privacy. Our freedom to go about our daily business, without being constantly monitored, could be at stake".

A Google spokesperson told ITPro that they take the issues "seriously" and users would always be aware the app was on their phone due to an in-built safety feature that actively alerts users the service is running.

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Software, Google, Car And GPS, Apps