Google Latitude: A way to track employees?

For some time Google has been developing products and applications which can be used with mobile devices. Their latest application Google Latitude also being described as the ‘Google people tracker’ allows you to ’see where your friends are in real time’.

Essentially what this means is that once the application has been enabled on your mobile device, e.g. your BlackBerry, other people can track your movements and view your status.

Already this application has got people worried, for example the BBC News website said: “The service has raised a number of security concerns, as many users may not be aware that it is enabled.” They continue: “privacy watchdog Privacy International argues that there are opportunities for abuse of the system for those who may not know that their phone is broadcasting its location.”

Google’s blogsite for this service states that the service is available on a strictly 100% opt-in basis, but this has got us wondering what it means for businesses who employ staff. Afterall, often the company owns the mobile phone, pays the bills and supplies the phone to staff to use for business purposes. So do you need to tell the user of the phone if the service has been enabled?

Google Latitude has been designed so that a notifaction pops up telling the user that their location is being shared, but in an interview with the BBC, Google “admits that the notification service is currently only available for BlackBerry users”.

Could this service help employers to cut sickness absences and keep an eye on staff who are out of the office on extended ‘client meetings’? If an employee knows that their movements may be tracked by their employer via their phone are they less likely to take a ’sickie’ or does it mean that they’ll simply turn off their phone when they leave the building? If you have a large salesforce or need to track drivers, this could offer a very effective solution for improving efficiencies by ensuring that the right person is sent to the appointment or the job and to give customers a more accurate estimated time of arrival.

Before you get excited, take note. Users of this service can manually set their location. So when you check in on a sick employee and see that according to their phone they are tucked up in bed, they could be down the pub!

What are your thoughts? Would you insist on this feature being installed on your company phones or do you see it as an invasion of privacy?

© Copyright SME Academy 2009