Notices

This is basically a lot like Mozilla Firefox extension Geode which is planned to be included in Fennec (Mozilla Mobile). A Google employee wrote the W3C specification, and Apple iPhone has this capability already using Skyhook Wireless. It was using this as replacement for GPS.

Yes, this is possible with Geode. See my link above. You can choose to share between city, neighborhood, exact location, or nothing at all.

I very much agree with the privacy concerns.

And, its still true, you have to be careful when picking your friends and keep your enemy closer than your friends

Not much.
When I'm available, mine tell people that I'm working on my computer, or that I've left it idle long enough to time out. When I'm not available, they show no information.

No; I'm not conceited enough to think the world at large is interested in 99% of my life, and the 1% that has some relevancy to certain chunks of the world get posted in public sites (like here) that are frequented by those who will be interested.

That's what "we" have, and what some of us choose to use, and some of us don't. Some of us are choosing not to use it still, even though it's now being made easier and slicker than ever before. Almost as though our previous declination to use it was not based on difficulty.

FWIW, I don't see this as a generational issue. (I'm mid-20s, FYI.) I see it as simply a difference in attitude. We all see the same things, but still look at them differently. (There's also complete *****s who don't immediately see any link between "I can share my location with my friends" and "someone could spend some effort and track me down", but I'll restrict the discussion to sentient lifeforms.)

• There are those who see the possibility of tracking them down, and can't stand the notion that someone, with enough effort, could do that. (And are crazy enough to think they can realize untraceability... these guys are amusing.)
• There are people who see what's going on, and don't mind; they tend to think they've nothing to hide, and since sharing random minutiae of their lives gives them some sort of warm fuzzies, why not?
• Then there are those of us who see it, who also have nothing to hide most of the time, but also have nothing to flaunt, and feel that privacy is a natural default when there's no good reason to divulge info, and needs no justification. Maybe we don't get warm fuzzies, or maybe we just don't consider them a good reason. We are clearly the most principled, rational, and generally sane of the lot.

Since these different attitudes don't depend on any observations only available x years ago, or reactions to previous generations, there's no obvious reason these attitudes should be tied to any particular age or generation, and I don't think they are.

I don't think the point is so much privacy or who your friends are... The question is; are you willing to give Google ad servers your location all the time?

This would add a new dimension to targeted advertisement, make Google a gazillion more bucks, and bring us 1 step closer to a more perfect Orwellian society.

"WAR IS PEACE", "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY", "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH", "WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT HAMBURGER YOU JUST PURCHASED @ 41.889779,-87.625795"

Well, these days I certainly don't want to announce when I'm not at home. There are groups of criminals who actively use that kind of information to decide when to break into people's homes. This seems to get more and more popular.

Depends on many factors.

For example with how many people you live.

Or if the place seems abandoned.

Here its known East Europeans put hardware spyware on ATMs and drive around to notice paterns who is home when. So I tend to go to specific ATM locations, check them out, cover my hand when typing PIN. For the latter I tend to leave quickly, always have my lights on, and always have (soft) music on. Its just that many factors add up. How you look. How your home looks from the outside.

..but I heard the other day that when kids are supposed to be on school and they're blogging the compulsory_education_officer has a word with 'em. Funky!

I think Benson's post is a very good one to start with when dealing with this issue. I also believe my point about the accurary of the position is a valid one. And, I believe it is possible to define your friends and define who sees what. Eventually, after the hype goes away, I imagine it will be easy to tell a contact your (approx) location, but I imagine it won't be shared with the whole world or even all your contacts/peers. And, I believe something similar will be true regarding blogging and social network sites. And regarding a generation shift: I sure as hell would not want my kid to share her exact GPS location with the whole world. Sooner or later it will be in balance based on usability and security. It just requires some time, and (painful) mistakes.

And with Google Street View, thieves can screen prospects from the comfort of their own hovels.

On the plus side, I wouldn't mind all those cell phones reporting their location to Google while in a moving car on main traffic arteries. < That would lend itself to near real time traffic reports via a Google Map layer.

I know some may think my earlier Orwellian remark may not apply because Google is a private company and it's "do no evil" philosophy does focus on the end user...

... but, we should all remember how easy it was for the US Government to commandeer AT&T and other Telecoms routers and servers in the name of National security.

I'll tell you what, if I was an "evil doer", I wouldn't want a cell phone closer to me than the blast range of an incoming missile.

From Ars Technica:

"Your activities on the Internet are akin to your activities out in public—they're not private and are possibly open for police scrutiny, according to an Ontario Superior Court. The ruling was made by Justice Lynne Leitch on—surprise!—a child pornography case. The judge said that there's "no reasonable expectation of privacy" when it comes to logs kept by ISPs. Canadians, watch out, because everything you do online could soon be turned into legal fodder, even without a warrant."

"reasonable expectation of privacy" coupled with laws requiring ISP's to keep logs...essentially the state can monitor you because a "private" party is already doing it for you and the law requires they hand over such info.

And all you wanted to do is see a little icon of your friend float along a Google Map.

Eh true, cue NSA jokes... its a bigger problem than merely GPS.