The founders of Glassmap, a new real-time location sharing service, have made clear their company’s stand when it comes to privacy. It is observed that many online users are becoming more involved with software services and applications. In fact, some of them describe their day as “incomplete” if they cannot share pictures, post comments, or add friends. There seems to be a strong force that links a user to a certain software service or application.

Glassmap has been criticized for alleged user privacy violations. Its “Post to Facebook” option in its registration process was the one that triggered such an unfavorable reaction. If the option was left checked, the Facebook user’s Timeline would show an invitation to join Glassmap. This, critics say, exposes users to more privacy risks, even though they might also be benefited from it. The company said that Facebook told them to eliminate this “feature”, which it did.

The founders encourage real dialog about online privacy instead of wasting productive minds and technology on petty controversies. According to them, there are four important areas that need to be given real attention. These are real-time adaptability, transparency, the right amount of privacy, and user-service symmetry.

There are about 800 million Facebook users around the net. With this staggering number, it is safe to say that this social networking giant is really becoming a household name. These users are from different groups – according to age, profession, online preferences, or even reasons for joining. This internet giant has drastically changed the lives of these people. In fact, many of them could not let a day pass without having shared pictures, posted comments, visited digital links, and so much more.

The pressure put on those who still refuse to join the social networking phenomenon is really strong. Whether they are technophobes or privacy advocates, these people are not spared from the draw to conform to what others are interested in. There were those who, for many years have continued to resist, but are now hooked on making more and more “friends” every day. Actually, they admitted that they should have known of the benefits of having a social networking account way earlier.

After a period of time, the so-called “Do Not Track” idea is still interpreted differently by two different groups of people. Companies limit their interpretation so that it would apply to targeted ads only. Consumers see a wider scope, that is, to be totally free from being watched in everything they do online. Discussions are still going on about the “Do Not Track” scope and are still on the battlefield of ideas. Internet companies believe that consumers need to understand what they would lose if they are totally not tracked.

Support to “Do Not Track” has been announced by Google and online advertisers. The internet giant made it clear that the support was only for targeted advertisements. Considering this standpoint, people are not very happy, especially those who expected something wider in scope. It can be inferred that Google will still gather consumer data and sell it for a particular purpose.

The privacy plan of the Obama Administration is getting the attention of a wide sector of society. In fact, the White House is at the center of the controversy. After the announcement of the plan last week, debates over online privacy has once again heated up.

In the said proposal, different entities that are related to online activities have been called to work as one. The government now calls on those internet companies, law enforcement agencies, privacy groups, and state attorneys general. They are encouraged to forget their individual interests for a while and to collaborate. They are given a common objective – to come up with voluntary standards that would protect consumer data to the highest degree.

There are apprehensions that the Obama privacy plan could threaten the internet. Privacy advocates hope that this is going to be a good one. Others say that the United States will soon have a privacy law that, hopefully, is one that supports innovation and gives more user protection.