The use of location-aware smartphones is now reducing the overall privacy of individuals who volunteer personal information online, a study has revealed.
Apple's iPhone has a hidden map that stores each and every location a user has been to. Although the company said that the stored information will not be used to track a user, privacy is still compromised.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) said that technological surveillance coupled with volunteered personal information make up the dynamic visibility that erodes personal privacy of an individual.
Secret surveillance and voluntary sharing exposes an individual's personal data -- overall privacy is lost. Head of the Laboratory for Contemporary Urban Design at TAU's Department of Geography and Human Environment Dr. Tali Hatuka said this happens every time an individual uses location-aware smartphones with apps like Waze or Facebook.
Voluntary Sharing
The team then designed an Android app, Smart-Spaces, to gather data for the study. The app was installed on the smartphones of TAU students for 20 days. During the experiment, the students participated in context-based surveys, which were used to track locations online and phone application usage.
Researchers have found that more than 73 percent of the students readily volunteered their location as they joined in the surveys. Hatuka said that respondents are more open to share their location when they are in public places.
Changing Times
Hatuka acknowledges that their study may not represent the general population but explained that the times are changing and the students' behavior and practices can influence the public.
Hatuka shares that they are looking at the correlation of urban space, social behavior and smartphone use to further understand the current practices and offer recommendations.
"Our next objective is to understand what we actually see among an overload of images in an age of digital information," Hatuka said.
The study was published in Urban Studies.
Photo: Daniel Flathagen | Flickr
