From time to time, people put their privacy at risk just because they do not know how to protect it. The use of GPS technology has significantly helped people to find places and locations more easily. When driving through an unfamiliar location, finding a restaurant or an ATM in town, GPS is necessary. Recently, several concerns have been raised regarding privacy issues in the use of tracking technology. Many phones and cameras are now equipped with GPS, and users like its features from regular photo taking to uploading on the internet.
Critics presented their main point of unease as to the risk involved. Anyone can have access to the user's location from cell phone data. Technology has enabled many phones to store complete records of where a person has been. Using this data with Google maps, the phone owner's location data can be easily traced, as well as how long he or she stayed in there.
GPS-enabled phones or cameras store photos using EXIF data which means Exchangeable Image File. The EXIF annotation is used in almost all new versions of digital cameras. This enables storage of photos to consist of shutter speed, F number, exposure compensation, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, etc. The foregoing does not pose problems on privacy, but are just information about characteristics of the stored data. What stirs unease is that some cameras are capable of storing GPS information on the photo so that one can easily pinpoint where it was taken.
On the part of Apple and Google, they say that users have to be responsible for shielding their own privacy. Users cannot put the fault on technology just because it is made available. Users are the ones who can decide whether or not to use it. To get around privacy risks, users can switch off location tracking features in their phones. Google also said that the identification numbers of each phone signal cannot be traced to a specific handset. Google sets a policy of assigning a unique signal for each handset.
Some groups do not favor the idea of switching off GPS features. GPS technology has been applied in many helpful applications. New phone models are designed to manage lots of new apps that are location enabled. Not taking advantage of the benefits of this feature will make one's phone "useless".
One effective way of resolving the problem is to set limits on the use of GPS data. Phone users and manufacturers can also trust that the government can do as much to catch up with the fast-changing technology. Meanwhile, users have to make sure that they can shield their own privacy.
This can be done by limiting the sharing of data, in particular GPS enabled photos, online. One should take time to think well before uploading photos to any website, especially social networking sites. Users should be aware that most sites always ask the user whether or not he or she wants to disclose the information before posting. This makes one fully responsible for his or her own privacy.
Critics presented their main point of unease as to the risk involved. Anyone can have access to the user's location from cell phone data. Technology has enabled many phones to store complete records of where a person has been. Using this data with Google maps, the phone owner's location data can be easily traced, as well as how long he or she stayed in there.
GPS-enabled phones or cameras store photos using EXIF data which means Exchangeable Image File. The EXIF annotation is used in almost all new versions of digital cameras. This enables storage of photos to consist of shutter speed, F number, exposure compensation, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, etc. The foregoing does not pose problems on privacy, but are just information about characteristics of the stored data. What stirs unease is that some cameras are capable of storing GPS information on the photo so that one can easily pinpoint where it was taken.
On the part of Apple and Google, they say that users have to be responsible for shielding their own privacy. Users cannot put the fault on technology just because it is made available. Users are the ones who can decide whether or not to use it. To get around privacy risks, users can switch off location tracking features in their phones. Google also said that the identification numbers of each phone signal cannot be traced to a specific handset. Google sets a policy of assigning a unique signal for each handset.
Some groups do not favor the idea of switching off GPS features. GPS technology has been applied in many helpful applications. New phone models are designed to manage lots of new apps that are location enabled. Not taking advantage of the benefits of this feature will make one's phone "useless".
One effective way of resolving the problem is to set limits on the use of GPS data. Phone users and manufacturers can also trust that the government can do as much to catch up with the fast-changing technology. Meanwhile, users have to make sure that they can shield their own privacy.
This can be done by limiting the sharing of data, in particular GPS enabled photos, online. One should take time to think well before uploading photos to any website, especially social networking sites. Users should be aware that most sites always ask the user whether or not he or she wants to disclose the information before posting. This makes one fully responsible for his or her own privacy.
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It is not just phones that can give away your actual location. Every time you access the Internet you are letting websites know where you are. To surf anonymously use an anonymous proxy to hide your actual location.
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