Ok, this scares the crap out of me.
There is a company that is gathering GPS coordinates of all the WiFi devices out there. They have integrated this positioning lookup service into the iPhone and iPod-Touch. It is capable of determining your location by scanning for WiFi SSID’s and signal strengths. It is able to send this data to a lookup service that then returns a relatively accurate location of your device.
The company is Sky Hook Wireless and the technology is scary accurate. They have the following posted policy:
“Skyhook Wireless respects the privacy of your location. Skyhook does not collect personally identifying information, track your location, or share your location without your consent.”
This is a fine and good, but I can envision a malicious web site that you connect to with your browser, polls your wifi information and locates your position. This can be used for both positive and negative uses. I can imagine the pop-ups on the browser telling me that my favorite restaurant is close or worse that bounty hunter that is after me for jumping bail is notified where I am… 😉 But seriously, this has some amazing possibilities but can easily be mutated into something very Big-Brother.