Katina on Right Path to Testing Tracking Technology

It seems like a fun experiment to log your every move on the world wide web for friends and family to track.

But what happens when the automated location device in your mobile phone or laptop somehow gets it wrong and posts you as being in a totally different city, or suspicious trackers assume because you were in a pub you were drunk?

These and many other scenarios are potential implications of the latest technology many do not even know exists in their phone or computer.

University of Wollongong associate professor Katina Michael is testing the implications of the new technology and will eventually recommend regulations for its use.

There are no laws in Australia governing the use of the technology, which is less than a year old, despite its potentially serious impact on privacy.

Dr Michael said users need to approve "friends" to access the information, but it was only a matter of time before hackers found their way into the seemingly secure network.

As part of the experiment, she has given a group of her students access to the GPS tracking system in her Blackberry, which logs her movement on Google Latitude.

"What we're exploring is people's initial reactions to these capabilities- both the positive benefits and the negative implications."

"We need to regulate it because at the moment it's open slather as to how people use these things, and the more tech-savvy you are, the more ahead of the game you are," Dr Michael said.

Despite the potential negative implications, the technology provides exciting opportunities for networking and immediate access to information.

Location-based social networking sites allow users to do things such as send a request for a company to others logged in as being in the same area; search for things to do based on where you are; and provide friends with detailed information about where you have travelled.

But Dr Michael said such sites could also pose dangers.

"They know where we have been, but they don't necessarily know what we've been doing.

"The question is, where are we going in the next five years and how do we plot the safety implications of these applications?'

Citation: Courtney Trenwith, December 28, 2009, "Katina on Right Path to Testing Tracking Technology", lllawarra Mercury, p. 6.