Take a Glympse at This

Anybody who has not caught up with the recent headline making stories of phone hacking must have been on Mars.

Our local print and television media have taken it further by “exposing” the fact that mobile devices (not just smartphones) can and do store a pile of data including phone call logs and the locations we have visited. All that I wrote about a little while ago. And yes, this is still very much an Internet function.

I also discussed the options and, depending on view points, benefits of being able to place your pizza order whilst driving home and being able to pick it up from the pizza parlour just as it comes out of the oven rather than be confronted with a cold order. All this is possible because our smartphones etc are equipped with geoposition chips.

So the answer is yes; mobile devices and particularly smartphones do log information.

The question is whether this is good or bad depending on how we choose to define these terms and how the information is stored.

Imagine your youngster is out and needs your help. Would it not be a great idea if he or she could accurately show you their location? To be dramatic, that information could be relayed to the police to provide quick assistance in case of an emergency; perhaps it is your guest in need of help because he is hopelessly lost trying to reach your resort; or perhaps the lone and lost bushwalker who needs help desperately? These are all real life scenarios that have no sinister connotations.

More simply, how often have you rung someone and asked: “Where are you?” I do it quite frequently. We do use instant messaging, SMS and the like without hesitation. Indeed we readily use Internet banking or provide our credit card information over the web. That was a huge no-no just a few years ago yet we are reasonably comfortable with it today.

So what is of concern? I believe it is a question of what we consider to be an invasion of privacy and whether we have actually permitted others access to our data.

A sinister side does present itself if one chooses to argue that were this data available to anyone stalking could become a serious exception.

If one reads the privacy policy statements of our suppliers we would discover that we actually agree to their trawling of much of what we would class as private data. To me however these cleverly worded policies are for lawyers rather than the average person and most definitely not for me. The usual reason for their policies is invariably based on claims of providing or improving their service to us.

Why has this struck such a chord? It seems like anything anyone can talk about is the fact that our GPS-enabled smartphones (and other devices) are tracking our location. First, it was the iPhone, then the Android and finally Windows Phone 7.

According to a study by TRUSTe, a leading Internet privacy service provider, privacy is the leading concern for smartphone users, with security following close behind.

Privacy concerns weren’t only the primary concern stated by respondents but 77% said that they don’t want to share their location with app owners and developers. Beyond that, 85% of respondents said that they were uncomfortable with advertiser tracking; 77% of respondents don’t want to knowingly share their location with apps.

I am not a smartphone expert but the few systems I have played with provide facilities to control the behaviour of the phone and the data dissemination. It may take some digging through the various setup options but they do exist.

Looking at what is around today I find Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft’s instant messaging client, has over the years expanded the service to include activity and updates from other social networking sites. The current desktop client now aggregates updates from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social sites while also allowing you to share your activity from services like YouTube, Flickr and WordPress with your network of Messenger friends.

Users can also chat via the service or with Facebook friends, video chat, send video messages, watch videos together, play games, share files, watch photo slideshows and more.

A more interesting and appealing approach however may be Glympse.

Unlike the current crop of location-based social networking services (think Brightkite, Loopt, Gowalla, Foursquare, etc), Glympse isn’t designed to find nearby friends, share tips about local businesses or collect rewards for check-ins. It employs no game mechanics to encourage participation – that is, you aren’t given badges or points the more you use it. You don’t get to become the “mayor” of a place by checking in there the most, like you do in Foursquare. In fact, Glympse can hardly be called a “mobile social network” at all.

Glympse is more like a utility and that may what ensures its success long after everyone tires of “checking in” just because they can. There are a number of scenarios where Glympse may prove useful. Their PR team says they’ve seen its earliest users sharing locations related to cross-country road trips, marathons, paragliding flights and afternoons of skiing.

Although those standout occasions may give Glympse a “wow” factor, it’s in answering the everyday “where are you?” type questions where Glympse could prove be the most useful.

In the What is Glympse? introductory video, the company says sending a Glympse is easier than making a call or sending a text. To quote the manufacturer:

“Glympse is a groundbreaking new way to share your location with anyone for a specified period of time using patent-pending GlympseWatch timer.”

The illustration and following quoted text is from Glympse.com.

“Share your location from a mobile smartphone and have the recipient view a shared location on either a computer or mobile smartphone.

Still quoting the makers; Glympse is easier and faster than a phone call or text message, simply select a contact, set duration, and hit send.

Anyone with an Internet-enabled phone or computer can receive a Glympse. You can send a Glympse to a specific person, several people or even to Facebook and Twitter.

Only Glympse puts you in control – you set who sees you and for how long. Safe for families, friends, colleagues and one-time meetings.”

You may care to visit http://glympse.com/ to see a demonstration and obtain the software to try things for your self. There is no doubt that this kind of technology is here to stay especially if security features are enhanced. At the end of the day most of our data storage will be cloud based so we may as well learn to surrender to some great ideas as long as abuse can be minimised if not totally controlled.

I hasten to add that other developments are very much in the pipeline.

Arvo Elias
Cybercons

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