Microsoft Live Local

Micorosft Virtual Earth has now become Live Local. They added a “Locate Me” feature to display current location of the user by by using Wi-Fi technology. Very similar to James Howard’s Google Maps WiFi Locator and my MapMe. Microsoft uses their own Location Finder program that has to be installed. Location Finder is probably related to Microsoft’s efforts to locate APs. If you do not install Location Finder, or if your computer does not support Wi-Fi, Windows Live Local can attempt to find your location by using the IP address of your computer. Apparently Microsoft

In their privacy policy they mention that “Microsoft may use the information collected to provide you with more effective customer service, to improve Location Finder and any related Microsoft products or services”. They show a clear lack of sensitivity towards privacy issues. Location-based applications should be designed to present location coordinates privately to a user, without querying, or notifying the network.

Moreover, Mike Liebold proves in the Place Lab mailing list that “Clearly Microsoft’s IP location database includes spooky datamined information about users’ actual location that is not normally available by querying the publically accessible databases.”