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"  Recently the news has been filled with privacy concerns surrounding GPS in mobile devices, particularly for the two smartphone powerhouses: Apple (the iPhone and iPad) and Google (Android smartphones). Since the dawn of the digital age, there&amp;#039;s been fear that technology is giving companies and the government access to our personal information (Facebook, anyone?). Here are answers to the pressing questions. Why all this excitement now? It was recently uncovered that when you&amp;#039;re using your phone, whether it&amp;#039;s for a location-based app (Yelp) or for navigational purposes (Google Maps), a history of where you&amp;#039;ve been is stored on your phone. At first glance, this may not sound worrisome, as you probably keep your phone in your possession. The problem is that if you sync your device to a computer, all of the information is transferred as files to your PC. Again, this might not seem like much of a concern, but if a jealous boyfriend or nosey roommate has access to your computer, be forewarned! And the privacy threat goes beyond that. As this way of storing data about your movements is new, it&amp;#039;s not clear whether or not it&amp;#039;s legally protected. Also, as GPS technology isn&amp;#039;t perfected, there&amp;#039;s a chance that faulty info will be pulled.  The pros and cons. Most of us probably agree that it&amp;#039;s acceptable for government agencies to utilize locational information for emergency situations (to find out where you are when you place a 911 call). And we&amp;#039;d probably say it&amp;#039;s a good thing that companies utilize data to give directions based on traffic (reroute you when there&amp;#039;s an accident or road detours). And many of us like it when our phones geotag photographs so it&amp;#039;s easy to tell where they were snapped. But do you want the government to use this information to track potential suspects? Or for corporations to use this information to track your movements for their own purposes?  What is the U.S. government doing about it? Next week Apple and Google will appear before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. Representatives from the US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Center for Democracy and Technology, and others will be there to discuss how locational technology will affect privacy and the law.  What can you do? If you&amp;#039;re concerned, take the extra time to read the fine print in privacy agreements for apps and programs and learn to adjust your privacy settings. To protect yourself completely, you can turn off the GPS services on your smartphone, avoid apps, or forgo technology altogether and stick to your land line, phone book, and paper maps! Do you use location-based applications like Yelp or Google Maps on your phone? How much information are you comfortable sharing? Will reent revelations affect the way you use your phone? Let me know in the comments. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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