TPRC Panelists Consider Location-Based Privacy and P2P Arms Race

Location-based software has become one of the hottest new web applications, fueled by the expansion of smart phone users, these applications allow users to share their location with their friends or search for businesses based on the user's location. While location based applications are growing, research by Janice Tsai, a graduate student from Carnegie Mellon University, shows that many users are still concerned with exposing their location to the world. In a survey conducted by her research group, she found the greatest risk perceived by users was that they would be stalked or that the location of their homes would be revealed. The largest group of people interested in these types of applications is parents that want to be able to keep track of their children. The biggest obstacle seen to mass adoption of such technologies is the limitation of privacy settings on many of these applications.