The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer aired a story tonight on LBS, covering topics such as privacy. One interesting comparison was drawn between applications that use the mobile network to ping devices in a server-server transaction scenario which is often interpreted as invasive technology vs. other handset-based applications that publish location to servers where information is then distributed to web pages and other devices. The later is more prone to hacks I agree, but user identity with these is often abstracted through aliasing and users must initiate to publish so it’s not at all invasive. With GPS in more and more devices these days, I wonder if the future of location data access will increasingly become available independent of carriers…