Google Has Your Location

Several Google services can let you share with the world, and with Google's servers, where you're located right now. Are these handy tools? You bet. Nevertheless, you're letting a big corporation track where you are at any given moment.

is a Google Maps tool available for mobile and now for desktop customers. This service shows where you are with a little blue dot on Google Maps, which can give you a sense of where you are in unfamiliar territory or provide you with directions to your destination. Google says it in any way with My Location; however, you still have to send your location information to Google's servers to use the tool.

to My Location, except it allows you to share locations between friends based on your mobile phone or desktop location. The service has a lot of granular controls to restrict information sharing to specific friends, which makes this a very flexible service. But unless you have told Google not to track you, the company has your .

Did you know that Google also ties information about your -- as well as other unspecified data -- to your Google account when you use Latitude? Google probably wants battery life information so it can tweak the Latitude program, but why is it tying that information to your personal Google account, and what is this "other information" Google's collecting about your phone?