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Every smartphone is a stalker’s paradise with location data ready to share. This checkout is what allows you to watch food delivery arrive at your door and check what restaurants are nearby. It can also be used for tracking. Location tracking is so accurate that it can pinpoint one person in a crowd. And the technology is marketed as convenient, not creepy.
What is an acceptable level of online viewing? I assumed we all agreed that there was no ideal. Privacy campaigners are trying to limit the information we share, and laptops are being sold with built-in webcam covers. Earlier this month, Microsoft floated plans for a new feature that would take screenshots of a user’s computer every five seconds to train artificial intelligence. Still, location tracking apps like Life360 are being downloaded voluntarily.
Exactly how popular they are depends on your age. I don’t like the idea of ​​being watched – not least because my movements are so boring. A quick survey of friends found that those who, like me, were in their 40s and up either had no idea they could use their phone this way or had relatively little interest. As one put it: the idea of ​​appearing as a dot on someone else’s map has echoes of dystopian devices implanted in unwilling arms.
But all the friends seem ten years younger, as if watching each other with abandon. My 29 year old cousin has his girlfriend’s location as his lock screen on his phone. Neither finds the idea of ​​being watched or watched in this way unnerving. They say it makes them feel safer.
This is not because they are blind to the importance of online privacy. This is because they are realistic about the privacy that is available. They know that if you own a smartphone and don’t want to disable useful things like maps, your location is already being tracked. If app makers, smartphone manufacturers, and advertising companies are already tracking your location, why not share the information with people you know?
In addition, even if you turn off the features, you may still be tracked. Last year, Google agreed to pay $93 million to settle claims after it was accused of collecting location data even after users disabled settings.
Location sharing has been around for over a decade. Apple’s Find My app was originally released in 2010 to help users locate a lost phone; this then evolved into sharing data between friends. That same year, Facebook introduced Places, a location feature that allows users to share their movement. This was also the era of location-based social networking start-ups like Foursquare.
But what really made stalking look like harmless fun was the arrival of Snapchat’s virtual location-sharing map in 2017. Users can now see their friends grouped together as smiling Bitmoji. It looks like a game. A Bustle writer compared checking her friends’ location to playing The Sims.
If you want to start following people you know, then there is some etiquette. It’s good to use tracking, for example, to check if a friend got home safely at the end of the night, but not to surprise you on the street. And think carefully about who you share data with. This is for family and close friends only, not new dates. But there’s a danger of offending: ending location sharing is the modern version of cropping someone out of photos.
So I ask cousin, is it a bit like the rules around cell phones? In theory, you can call anyone at any time of the day, but most of us have agreed to leave each other alone. Unfortunately, this analogy didn’t work. While my cousin and his friends like to use their phones to keep tabs on each other, they wouldn’t dream of using them to make phone calls.
Location tracking as a safety measure, especially for elderly parents and children, is tempting. The risk is that it normalizes the sharing of personal information to such an extent that it will be difficult to reverse. If you’re comfortable sharing your location with family and friends, you might one day be happy to share it with your employer—even government agencies.
Geospatial data monitoring can also be a tool for behavior modification. Research by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego has indicated that up to half of all American families use some form of surveillance, ostensibly for safety. But he also found that just knowing they are being watched can change a child’s behavior.
Few of us are immune to this pressure. The Internet is sometimes described as a panopticon in which our activities are monitored by online companies from all over. By following each other, we give this model more power.
elaine.moore@ft.com