With regard to the cheerleaders saying there are no problems whatsoever with this feature:<p>1. The reason people raise concerns about Google, and less so about iOS, is that Google and Apple are in different businesses. Google is in the business of profiting off your personal data and that of your family members. Apple is not, and iOS makes it significantly harder for rogue apps to get access to personal data without the actual user's direct permission.<p>2. Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) place different priorities on security relative to other factors.<p>3. Many of the naysayers are raising issues that do not single out Android, however fair it may be to do so. There are some issues that remain the same beyond the specific platform. For example: this kind of app creates social pressure for people to be tracked by their family and show trust that they may not sincerely feel.<p>4. If you think they can "just" turn the feature off or "just" remove the trusted contacts when they feel uncomfortable, you are not thinking this through. These "trusted" contacts may be authority figures in the family and may be able to examine any settings done by the actual users.<p>5. If your kids are carrying a cell phone, it should probably be a secure phone, with strictly enforced app store policies, and with a secure OS that is not provided by a company with every incentive to gather and monetize personal and private information. Your kids do not deserve to be the targets of this kind of commercial activity. So even if you think the feature is good, it is tainted by the interests of the provider. But whether the feature is good or bad, Android is a bad way for children to get the feature.
I am guessing that the nay sayers to this app probably don't have young children. I have two sons (16 and 13) who are always out and about socialising with friends, or at sporting / musical activities. My older son gigs with his band late at nights, and let me tell you - as parents, my wife and I do not rest easy until we either pick him up or he gets dropped home.<p>Any app that lets us check on our kids' whereabouts quickly and effectively without taking them out of the zone (Have you ever tried to get a teenager to call to let you know "Hey everything is OK"??) is a blessing IMO.<p>An app like this would be restricted just between my wife and I, and our two boys. No more than that. No more is needed. We are an 'absolute trust' group and quite frankly, the idea that any of us would want to hide our locations from each other is simply not even a thing.
Used as intended this sounds like a great idea. However used by an abusive significant other or parent (even just an overbearing parent) it seems pretty scary. To mitigate the potential harm I would hope for two things<p>1. Make it hard/impossible to be forever telling your location to someone (it's unclear if that's what the feel unsafe mode does in the first place, or if it just broadcasts it once)<p>2. Make it easy to 'enter an alternate location' to tell the inquirer
I can't believe the amount of effort invested in this more cumbersome, much more specific use case solution rather than just bringing back Latitude -- a fully functional product (and exactly the same under the hood) that existed 6 years ago.<p>I trust my trusted contacts -- let me share my location all the time. (No, some backwater tab in the G+ app does not count.)
Coincidentally (or not), Facebook presented this as an upcoming Messenger feature today [1]<p>> If you can't find a friend and become worried about their safety, Messenger could one day let you send a request to see their location. A timer would begin on the friend's phone that gives them a chance to approve or deny the request. If the timer expires on its own, their location would be sent to you automatically.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reviewed-coolest-facebook-hackathon-projects-2016-12" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reviewed-cool...</a>
I am afraid most people are missing the target audience of this feature.<p>This is for people who live in unsafe areas and have trusted family member than they do want to watch over.<p>This is an app that should have been released in India immediately after Nirbhaya incident. For a Company thats supposed to move fast, Google definitely blew timing of launching such a feature.
> Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe<p>As a parent, I find this tremendously useful. This is specially important for people in certain countries where walking/driving home at night is realistically dangerous.
An insinuation of this kind of tech is that if you aren't carrying a phone, you aren't safe.<p>I'm seeing in the comments that the level of trust in companies is higher than the trust in your government.<p>Both very sad things.
Useful feature, yes, but I see this as a license to track locations of more people at all times. Also see: Uber's recent "always track" update
Bad name. How about: "I'm here.", or "Where are you?". Trusted contacts sounds more like a FOAF vouch, or authenticated contact details app.
For anyone looking for a more privacy conscious version, I made Graticule[1] a few years ago.<p>Install the app, start beacon, send anonymous and platform independent link, done.<p>Optionally customize location technology (gps/network/passive) and beacon interval (from the default GPS/1 second).<p>No registration, no contacts, nothing else.<p>You choose when you're sharing your location and with whom.<p>Partially inspired by the old Google Latitude.<p>[1] <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo.graticule" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo....</a>
I tend to feel that this is more for parents who don't trust their kids, rather than those who do. Many parents will say, "My kids won't have a problem with this because we have trust in <i>our</i> family."<p>The truth is, if you trusted your kids, you wouldn't need the ability to obtain their exact location without having to ask for it. Parents who trust their kids will already know where their kids are supposed to be, or will just ask them.<p>On the other hand, I see no problem with the feature that allows you to request location and will automatically send location after a long non-response.<p>Of course, most kids (beyond a certain age) are going to occasionally go places their parents aren't comfortable with. This is a normal part of growing up and it shouldn't be impossible IMO. Even in particularly bad or dangerous cases, I would feel this calls for a normal punishment (maybe?). No TV, chores, etc. Not constant location tracking.
It's always amazing to me how often Google takes something they... already had... renames it, and then announces it as a brand new thing. I used to use this six years ago, it was called Google Latitude.
And now, Google injects itself directly within and throughout the level of trust some people only place in their parents or spouses.<p>It used to be that certain truths were only know between two people, but now for many, it will be those two people, and Google.<p>Even if it were any other company, the totality of awareness a single organization has, from childhood on up should give us some pause.<p>Microphones, accelerometers, cameras, GPS, and now annotated depth of relationship, instead of presumed depth inferred from ancillary metrics.<p>At this point it's getting a little strange.<p>With software and services these days, there's almost nothing people <i>won't</i> consume. It's as if people will eat everything in a package labeled as food, even if most of the contents are inedible.<p>More and more, it feels like people know they're eating fish hooks, but maybe they'll pass the foreign objects they've swallowed, before any fisherman tries to tug the line and set the hook.<p>But even if you or I don't buy in, when everybody else does, the outliers still get hooked and still lands in the boat, just by implicit association and proximity.<p>The stakes are raised ever higher with each beat of this game. It's like the quote from Apocalypse Now:<p><pre><code> Ah, man... The bullshit piled up so
fast in Viet Nam, you needed wings
to stay above it.</code></pre>
Google PI ;)<p>I very often wish for something similar, for instance when my mother is running a bit late in a park. I don't want to mess with her jogging or walk. But I'd like to be sure she's still fine.<p>Thing is, except for the current generation, smartphones are often silenced and forgotten in some pocket. So unless it's an invasive constant-on tracker .. it wouldn't work in my case.
<i>Here’s how it works: Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family.</i><p>I've got an android phone but my wife has an iPhone, does that mean this is useless for us?<p>Edit, it's in the works:<p><i>If you're an iOS user, click here to get notified when the iOS app is available</i>
Should I think that it is coincidence that Uber wants 24/7 location data, FB wants it, and Now Google officially wants it..
Now, people like me who prefer to 'own' their digital lives, and not become part of this surveilled garden would be labeled as 'tinhat'.<p>Thanks but no thanks.
>assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family<p>Would be great if we wouldn't have to assign the "trusted" status to Google(or any other 3rd party) too in order to use the app.
Interesting. Me and my SO use glympse to coordinate pickups, but we've been looking for a relatively low power consumption way to share location just generally.
>Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon.<p>The cynic in me thinks this whole use case is intended to normalize the idea of a company always knowing everywhere you go. See? Privacy is unsafe!
I wonder if this would work for when I need to pick my kids up or some friend at the airport.<p>Basically tell them to wait inside while I share my location. Then have it alert them when I'm nearby so they can come out.<p>This would be really helpful for the airport situation, as I wouldn't even need to park.
If you have concerns you can always use this. I am planning to opensource this<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spacetime" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spacetime</a>
<p><pre><code> blog.google
</code></pre>
It sometimes escapes me how much power google holds over the internet. It's moments like this that rekindle my fear in the "Don't be Evil" slogan (or for that matter, the removal of said slogan).
Such a live tracking service exists for openstreepmap based OSMAND already (with privacy)
<a href="http://osmand.net/features?id=osmo-plugin" rel="nofollow">http://osmand.net/features?id=osmo-plugin</a>
The app isn't working for me. I keep pressing Continue on the welcome screens and after the 4th or 5th screen Continue stops doing anything. Same thing when I restart the app, etc... anyone have this problem?
What a great way for homophobic parents to keep track of their gay kids and make sure they aren't hanging out at that LGBT centre, or with any LGBT-friendly people!
Is talking about distrusting this service due to government intervention a violation of the "no politics" rule? What about if it's just a nosy parent?
Anyone want to take bets on how long until someone uses this to find his or her spouse's secret lover?<p>My money is going to be on "not very long".
>assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family<p>OK Google, we got the whole point of this app.<p>Nevertheless, it's a useful feature and can help many.
Dad has requested your location.<p>Your location will be auto shared in 4min 59seconds.<p><i>Loud Music Notification Not Audible</i><p>Son is in Strip Club. Thank you.
This is nice. Definitely in response to Facebooks Safety Check and it's great to see innovation that makes the world a better place. I wrote about this: <a href="http://richartruddie.blogspot.com/2016/12/facebook-google-safety-check.html" rel="nofollow">http://richartruddie.blogspot.com/2016/12/facebook-google-sa...</a>
- google now has one more reason to collect your location and associate it with the rest of your activities<p>- you are encouraged to use your phone even more, because doing so signals to your loved ones that you're ok. Using your phone pretty much means sharing even more data with google, watching their ads and buying stuff from their app store<p>It's a pure win. For google.
iOS allows me to request location access as well as permanently or temporarily share my location. It would be great to get a "last known location" coordinate, but this feature is still very useful.
I trust my contacts google. I don't trust your ideas.
Got an idea... vote before implement. You ask us if we want the new feature looking at our data.<p>Just kidding. I like the idea.
Geez. Google is just getting carried away with this tracking stuff. It's like every day they release something new that seems to con people into letting Google track them.<p>I know advertising is a trillion dollar industry. But, you'd think that Google, of all companies, would be the ones to create real innovation and value without falling to the lowest common denominator.
>When Elliot doesn’t show up at the coffee shop, Thelma starts to worry. Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. Thelma calls the nearest ranger station, they send out a rescue party, and find Elliot in a few hours.<p>Yeah because that has totally been a problem I've been needing a solution for.
This is not good. This basically gives a public opening into massive amounts of data which they could legally collect till now but now use it as a product? What happens when people disable location access.<p>And this:<p>>But if you’re unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe, your location is shared automatically and your loved ones can determine the best way to help you out.<p>This does not seem like consent.I can think of at least a 100 situations where I was not near my phone and yet do not want to send my location.<p>Moreover how is this different from messaging someone/calling someone to ask them where they are?
The only time I am trying to reach a person and cannot reach them is when they are out of coverage range.At that time, no app would make a difference.<p>This is nice when its a part of other apps (Whatsapp,Uber etc) .On its own, location based information as being the only purpose can prove to be quite disastrous.<p>Edit 1:
People seem to miss the intricacies of human relationships here.I'd like to see folks tell their parents/loved ones/other close beings how they do not want to add "trusted contacts" and share their location continuously.