This afternoon I read an article from the New York Times about how your mobile phone is collecting where you are and have been. This is something I already knew and have for a long time not allowed apps to know where I am located. I really don't have much to hide but I still find it creepy that services are out there collecting my location on a regular basis.
The article goes through a number of scenarios about how that information could be used for nefarious purposes. Fortunately I don't need to worry about any of them. I am not a secret service agent guarding the president. I am not engaging in illegal activities that might include robbing banks or prostitution. About the only scenario I should be worried about is that someone would be able to tell when I am not at home or on my boat and be able to rob either location. Fortunately I don't have anything expensive on my boat and I doubt there is much in my home that warrants worrying about thieves.
The things I really worry about are exactly why those smartphone applications are collecting the data: advertising. Companies like to be able to track that you have seen an ad and then visited a store to purchase something. Advertisers can also see that you walked into a restaurant and left immediately. That will just open the flood gates to restaurant ads spamming my phone. I am also not interested in ads for stores I just walked by. Imagine walking by a shoe store and then being bombarded with coupons about shoes you don't care about. I just wanted to get to the video game store on the other side.
After reading the article, I double checked my phones and Google account. I have made sure to turn off location notification on all of them. If I need to use a map application, I will turn it back on temporarily and then be sure to turn it off again.
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