Location Based Platforms

When I first looked at the assignment and saw we were to write on Location Based Platforms I was definitely at a loss for what any of those words meant. With a little bit of research I found some interesting items. In an article I read it talked about how the future of location based apps will shape the way we shop in stores. By now most of us know that many platforms/applications used involve having to turn on our location features on our phones. Imagine you are walking around Walmart trying to find some items. Only problem is you have no idea where to look and there are no customer service representatives. I bet it would be nice to have an app that can tell where to locate any item you might be looking for. That is exactly what a company named Aisle 411 on a smaller scale. This company has mapped out every Walgreens drugstore. All a person has to do is enable their location feature, type in what they are looking for and the app will tell you exactly where to find the item. As technology becomes more sophisticated I can see this happening on a broader scale like in Walmart.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2014/04/30/how-location-based-apps-will-shape-the-future-of-shopping/#.VNB4Vf54pcQ

There are some pretty nifty things that can come out of Location Based Services, but with good there is also bad. Personally, unless I need my location feature on for something specific I keep it off for a few reasons. It helps conserve my battery life and most importantly I like my privacy. In the scholarly article Time for a Privacy Check-in it states, “Depending upon the information and who learns it, the ramifications could range from annoying to embarrassing to downright dangerous. Robberies have been linked to location status updates and GPS technology already has been involved in a significant number of stalking cases.” This is a big issue with LBS. Location information can be gathered knowingly or unknowingly to the user and when this happens it can spell trouble because someone who is looking at the information not only can tell where you are, over time they can pick up what a possible routine is for the user. As long as the location feature is enabled information is constantly being transmitted and it is stored indefinitely. What scares me is in the article there is discussion on how LBS have the potential to compile a large quantity of history of where the user has been. Talk about invasion of privacy.

http://aclunc-tech.org/files/lbs-privacy-checkin.pdf

I think there are upsides and downsides to having such features as the LBS. There can be a lot of great uses like not being able to get lost. At the same time I feel there is a general concern for the amount of privacy lost by deciding to use it.