Search Info On BlackBerries
By Martin Clamson
Sometimes, people put their privacy at risk just because they do not know how to protect it. The use of GPS technology has really made it easier for people to find places and locations more easily. When driving through an unfamiliar area, finding a restaurant or an ATM in town, GPS is needed. Lately, various concerns have been raised about privacy issues in the use of tracking technology. Many phones and cameras are now outfitted with GPS, and users like its capabilities from simple photo taking to uploading on the internet.
The concerns center on the risks involved with anybody being able to locate a user by accessing his or her cell phone data. These days, phones can store data on the position of a person, particularly location. The phone owner's location data can be easily mapped - where he or she had been for a period of time - with the assistance of Google maps.
Exchangeable Image File, or EXIF, is used in GPS-enabled phones or cameras to store photos. This is now frequently used by almost all new models of digital cameras. Saved photos will include data regarding shutter speed, F number, exposure compensation, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, etc. These are all information about features of the stored data and do not cause problems on privacy. It is the ability of cameras to store GPS information that ignites privacy concern because anybody can effortlessly locate where the photo was taken.
Apple and Google have made public their opinion on the privacy subject. According to them, users should not pass on the accountability of protecting their privacy to others. Even if the technology is there, users still have the final decision of whether or not to use it. Users can simply disable or enable GPS features in their phones. Google also made clear that identification numbers of each phone signal cannot be traced to a specific handset. Google assigns a distinctive signal for each handset as part of each policy.
Some groups do not back the idea of switching off GPS features. GPS technology has been applied in many valuable applications. New phone models are designed to manage a lot of new apps that are location enabled. Not taking advantage of the benefits of this feature will make one's phone "useless".
Users can continue to pressure phone manufacturers and lawmakers to set limits on the use of GPS data. They can also trust that the government could move more rapidly in order to catch up with the fast-changing technology. Meanwhile, the best that can be done for the moment is to protect one's own privacy.
One way of doing this is by limiting data sharing, mainly when using GPS enabled phones and cameras. One should take time to be aware of what happens to data that they upload to any website, especially social networking sites. Most sites always ask the user whether he or she wants to share the information before posting. This makes privacy the full responsibility of the user.
The concerns center on the risks involved with anybody being able to locate a user by accessing his or her cell phone data. These days, phones can store data on the position of a person, particularly location. The phone owner's location data can be easily mapped - where he or she had been for a period of time - with the assistance of Google maps.
Exchangeable Image File, or EXIF, is used in GPS-enabled phones or cameras to store photos. This is now frequently used by almost all new models of digital cameras. Saved photos will include data regarding shutter speed, F number, exposure compensation, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, etc. These are all information about features of the stored data and do not cause problems on privacy. It is the ability of cameras to store GPS information that ignites privacy concern because anybody can effortlessly locate where the photo was taken.
Apple and Google have made public their opinion on the privacy subject. According to them, users should not pass on the accountability of protecting their privacy to others. Even if the technology is there, users still have the final decision of whether or not to use it. Users can simply disable or enable GPS features in their phones. Google also made clear that identification numbers of each phone signal cannot be traced to a specific handset. Google assigns a distinctive signal for each handset as part of each policy.
Some groups do not back the idea of switching off GPS features. GPS technology has been applied in many valuable applications. New phone models are designed to manage a lot of new apps that are location enabled. Not taking advantage of the benefits of this feature will make one's phone "useless".
Users can continue to pressure phone manufacturers and lawmakers to set limits on the use of GPS data. They can also trust that the government could move more rapidly in order to catch up with the fast-changing technology. Meanwhile, the best that can be done for the moment is to protect one's own privacy.
One way of doing this is by limiting data sharing, mainly when using GPS enabled phones and cameras. One should take time to be aware of what happens to data that they upload to any website, especially social networking sites. Most sites always ask the user whether he or she wants to share the information before posting. This makes privacy the full responsibility of the user.
About the Author:
It is not just phones that can reveal your location. Every time you surf the Internet you are letting others know where you are. To surf anonymously us an anonymous proxy to mask your location.
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