Cell phones and wireless communication has evolved with light speed over the past few years. We have seen a shift of an era starting from Ericsson's giant walki talkies to Apple's iPhones. Cell phones and mobile devices today have changed from a mere communication devices used for simply calling your loved ones or communicating business deals to a medium used for sophisticated data transfer.
However, this improvement in technology have brought an immense danger of privacy leak that can potentially happen due to a smart phone.
Imagine, you are using Facebook or Twitter on your cell and your device also has GPS capabilities, which most of the devices have today. For some of you, who does not know what GPS stands for, it is a location tracking system which is called (Global Positioning System). Any GPS enabled device has the ability to send signals to another GPS device to communicate its exact location. I have already discussed the Facebook and Twitter tracking scenario in previous blog posts. What happens if Facebook or Twitter's mobile version has the ability to tap your exact location based upon your device's GPS signals? They would know where you are at a certain point of time. Won't they? Without you ever authorizing them to find you. Isn't it a privacy leak?
And well, it does not only have to wait for GPS functionality. Normal data transfer over mobile social networks can even cause a user to leave traces for his/her friends so that they might know where he has been.
Social network on a mobile device has an immense potential of unintended privacy leaks for any user. Question really matters as how the privacy changed in the internet age. Or do we have to redefine the definition of privacy in the internet age?
However, this improvement in technology have brought an immense danger of privacy leak that can potentially happen due to a smart phone.
Imagine, you are using Facebook or Twitter on your cell and your device also has GPS capabilities, which most of the devices have today. For some of you, who does not know what GPS stands for, it is a location tracking system which is called (Global Positioning System). Any GPS enabled device has the ability to send signals to another GPS device to communicate its exact location. I have already discussed the Facebook and Twitter tracking scenario in previous blog posts. What happens if Facebook or Twitter's mobile version has the ability to tap your exact location based upon your device's GPS signals? They would know where you are at a certain point of time. Won't they? Without you ever authorizing them to find you. Isn't it a privacy leak?
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| Social Networks and Privacy Leaks on Mobile Devices |
And well, it does not only have to wait for GPS functionality. Normal data transfer over mobile social networks can even cause a user to leave traces for his/her friends so that they might know where he has been.
Social network on a mobile device has an immense potential of unintended privacy leaks for any user. Question really matters as how the privacy changed in the internet age. Or do we have to redefine the definition of privacy in the internet age?
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