Google Warns Latitude Users That They Might Be Sharing Their Location

Google appears to be getting a tad paranoid about its own privacy policies on the heels of the whole Google Buzz debacle.

The company apparently sent out an e-mail to some Latitude users this morning, warning them that the service might be giving away their location – which is kind of the whole point of the app – and asking them to check their settings.

Update: commenters tell us Google started sending out said e-mails a while ago, not today.

As a reminder, Google Latitude is a location-aware application that was specifically designed to let mobile phone users broadcast their location to certain people.

This is the e-mail, forwarded to us by Andrés Catalán:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Feb 18, 2010 3:22 AM
Subject: You are using Google Latitude and reporting your location
To:

Hi,

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To protect your privacy we would like you to know that Google Latitude is running on your Android-powered device and reporting your location.

If you didn’t enable this or want to stop reporting your location please open the Maps app on your device. Go to ‘Menu’ > ‘Latitude’ > ‘Privacy’ and change your privacy settings.

Thanks,

Google Latitude Team

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