‘Location services’ a blinkin’ beacon

Is “location services” good or bad?

In a word, yes.

If you’re in your golden years and this phone feature isn’t on your radar, it’s typically under “settings” and “privacy.” From there you can turn it on or off.

Location services connects to GPS satellites, feeding the phone directions to nearby restaurants, hotels, and tourist sites. It tells social media feeds where you are when you check in online.

It’s a directional beacon.

Good: From a security perspective, it’s reassuring to have an idea where your kid, vulnerable loved one, or — if you’re into stalking — partner is.

Good: We’re far less likely to get lost or waste time ambling toward unfamiliar destinations. I still prefer paper maps on long drives, but it sure is handy on the fly and can save a lot of time.

Bad: “Privacy” is an apt name. Family account-sharers and talented computer geeks can find you whenever it’s on.

Bad? Good? So can governments.

Case in point: ICE’s use to track down immigrants without valid visas (and at least potentially, any other cellphone user). The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 12 that the federal government bought access to a giant commercial database which maps millions of cellphones. The data derives from games, weather, commercial and other apps connected to location services —whatever the user allows to access the phone’s location.

Other ways governments use location services include a digital dragnet, such as when Google, under a warrant, turned over data from all devices in the vicinity of a murder scene to Arizona detectives last year. The practice was first used in 2016 by federal agents.

Google told The New York Times that similar warrants from local departments across the nation rose sharply in 2019. Google’s “Sensorvault” is widely reported to include detailed location records from hundreds of millions of devices worldwide, dating back nearly a decade and stored indefinitely.

Good: Helping law enforcement catch bad guys.

Bad: Good guys swept up in fishing nets right along with them. There’s the argument that if we have nothing to hide, we shouldn’t mind. There’s also the argument that in democratic principle at least, it’s a slippery slope. Privacy is something to guard vehemently.

Somewhere there is probably a balance we can live with. Or just keep location services off.

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Sholeh Patrick, J.D. is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.