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Section 1 - Definitions
In these principles, where we refer to:
* applications, we mean applications or services that provide features, functionality or services to the user that use their location information;
* location information, we mean information locating the user, or their mobile device, using any available source of geographic location from positioning technologies;
* user, we mean an end user of an application, who is also the locatee;
* ‘active’ location applications, we mean an application where the user of the application and the person being located (‘locatee’) are one and the same individual, i.e. the person being located is asking the application to locate them. Active location applications can then be sub-divided into two types:
* 'personal' location applications, where the user does not share or make their location information available to any other person (although they may still use a remote server to run the application);
* 'social' location applications, where the user actively chooses to share their location with, or publish their location to, other users of the application - such as within a social network;
* ‘passive’ location applications, we mean an application where the user of an application and the locatee are different. In this category, the locatee is not in any sense ‘using’ the application, but instead a third party (which may be doing so legitimately and in accordance with the law) is using the application which is locating the locatee;
* active consent, we mean a specific and active indication of consent by the user, such as ticking or checking a consent box or equivalent act,
and when we say ‘must’ this is mandatory, and when we say ‘should’ this is recommended.
Tell us your thoughts or queries in the forum.
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Review comments
Re: location vs place
, Feb 18th, 2010
Hi buddycloud, First, thanks a million for being our first commenter in this forum. We really appreciate your taking the time to give us feedback. We hope these guidelines will help our developers create great applications, and your feedback will definitely help! Let me see if I understand what you're saying. Is it that just location without context should be treated one way, and location with context should be treated another? Think about location privacy this way . . . if a piece of information identifies where you are or have been, then there are privacy implications that should be addressed. Even if I don't know that place is your home or office, I could still use it to locate, profile or advertise to you in ways you might not be comfortable with, without clear notice or maybe even consent. Of course, if I'm combining that information with additional context that you might give me, or that I might infer or collect from another source (for example, that this lat/long is a McDonalds, or that one is the spot you leave every morning so must be your home), then that's additional personal information that should be handled with care too. You raise a valid point, which might be "when do these guidelines apply" and maybe even "why do we care"? So how do you think we could better convey this? I'm going to think about that and tinker with the language we've got here - maybe with a better definition of location data, among other things - but would love your thoughts too. I hope you'll stick around and continue this dialogue! Thanks again, Kasey Chappelle Group Privacy
location vs place
, Feb 12th, 2010
It may be worth clarifying the difference between sharing: 1. location 2. contextual place. I see location sharing as "I am at Home at this latitude and this longitude". This is different from just sharing a place tag of "Home" or "Work" with no associated latitude or longitude. It's an important distinction and worth clarifying especially as applications become more contextually aware. For example I don't need to know someone or to know their location, but if they choose to share that their contextual place is "Home" I am less likely to call them about work related issues. S.