Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Google lets Gmail give away your location

Remember not to e-mail the boss from a bar; Google adds tracking tech to Gmail signatures

February 11, 2009 12:00 PM ET

Active Comments
kilgore says: Er, if I want somebody to know where I am I can write "hey, I'm in Atlanta". It's not that...
Jonathan says: Uh. Perhaps you didn't read clearly. This is a Google Labs feature, meaning you have to explicitly toggle it to...


Computerworld - Google Inc. certainly is focused on where you are and letting others in on that information.

A week after unveiling Google Latitude, which enables people to track the exact location of friends or family through their mobile devices, the company today announced that its Gmail software can now show the location of e-mail writers.

"Some time ago, I noticed how all mail systems tell you when an e-mail was written, but not where it was sent from," said Marco Bonechi, a Google software engineer, in a blog post. "Because I love to travel, the first question in many messages I receive is "Where are you?" and by the time I answer, I am often somewhere else. So in my 20% time, I wrote an experimental Gmail Labs feature that detects your location and appends the city region and country names to your signature."

Bonechi noted that people can use the new Location in Signature feature by going to the Labs tab in Gmail under Settings and then clicking on Signature Preferences.

"It'll use your public IP address to determine your location, so it may not always be that accurate," he noted. "For example, if you're at Heathrow Airport, IP detection may put you in Germany. If you want more accurate location detection, make sure your browser has a version of [Google] Gears that supports the location module. That way, Gears can make use of Wi-Fi access-point signals to recognize that you're actually in London."

Bonechi also added that users who want to keep their locations private can disable the option or delete their locations from specific e-mails.

Google's tracking technology hasn't received full support from security experts.

Just a day after Google Latitude was released, Privacy International called Google's new mapping application an "unnecessary danger" to users' security and privacy.

Simon Davies, director of the London-based privacy rights group, said in a statement that Google Latitude could be a "gift" to stalkers, prying employers and jealous partners.

But Google was quick to respond. Replying to Computerworld questions in an e-mail, a spokeswoman said the company's engineers and designers took privacy and security concerns into account when they created Google Latitude.

Read more about internet applications in Computerworld's Internet Applications Knowledge Center.



Jump to comments

Google

Additional Resources

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know
WHITE PAPER
Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.
Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009
WHITE PAPER
The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.
Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing
WHITE PAPER
Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

White Papers & Webcasts

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.


IT Jobs