This past week Michael Markman (@mickeleh), a friend of mine who was on his way up Highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco, honored me with a visit. But although we were set to have coffee when he got to Half Moon Bay, neither he nor I knew exactly when he would arrive. I had to wait for him. 
So he sent me a Glympse.
For those of you who don’t follow the vicissitudes of Apple and the iPhone, Glympse is a small application that sits on your iPhone and allows you to send an email or a text message to someone, telling them exactly where you are and locating you on a map. So far, it doesn’t sound too exciting, but when you realize that as the traveller moves the app follows him/her on the map and automatically updates your visual in the same text message so you can track hiis whereabouts, Glympse becomes both convenient and transformative.
On the convenient side: if I had sent everyone who thought I couldn’t safely make the trip from Phoenix to Half Moon Bay a Glympse, they could have followed my trip and not had to call me to see how I was or worry about me.
On the transformative side, this is another of those features that makes one’s life more transparent. I am no expert, but the new iPhone has several new features, like an accelerometer, that must allow it to know where you are all the time. Blended with Google maps, this makes Find My IPhone work when your phone is missing (but also when it is on the nightstand in your paramour’s apartment). It also allowed a clever developer to invent Gympse, or someone to spy on you.
Basically, with Gympse, you don’t have to check in anymore. You are checked in by the phone as soon as you send a text message or an email to someone. Which means Apple and AT&T know where you are even if you never send the text message.
Personally, I am okay with all this, in fact I love it and gladly adopt it. But then, i am also okay with most people knowing all about me; I am whatever the opposite of paranoid is. But as people write to me and ask me if they should get an Iphone, they’re thinking about dropped phone calls and antennas, not privacy, and we all ought to know about the slippery slope I have chosen to slide down so we don’t all follow me:-)
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Tx great post Francine
Thanks rancine. Just got it for Android too
Very interesting. Lots of future uses.
Thanks Francine! You raise a compelling issue. While Facebook gets constantly slapped for privacy infringement, apps like Glimpse are far more intrusive. Like you, I don't worry about it and assume that everything I do online is available somehow, somewhere to someone.
Fortunately @mickeleh told me that Glympses do expire:-)
Thanks Francine! You raise a compelling issue. While Facebook gets constantly slapped for privacy infringement, apps like Glimpse are far more intrusive. Like you, I don’t worry about it and assume that everything I do online is available somehow, somewhere to someone.
Fortunately @mickeleh told me that Glympses do expire:-)
First of all, Glympse is fantastic; I love it. However, I must point out a couple of errors in your post.
An accelerometer does not determine your location; a GPS receiver does, and the old iPhone had that too, as do many other phones.
On that note, Glympse is also available for Android and Windows Mobile – it is not just for iPhones (thankfully!)
The most important point, however, is how the system works, and it's nowhere near as scary as you're making out. A “Glympse” is basically an email or text message, as you say, but there's nothing clever about that – it simply contains a URL. If you click on it on your computer, it takes you to glympse.com and shows you a map of where the traveller is. If you receive it on your mobile and follow the link, it might still open your browser and go to the Glympse website or, if you have the Glympse app yourself, it could open that instead.
The crucial thing is that the Glympse app on the traveller's phone ONLY sends the position to glympse.com for the duration of the Glympse, and ONLY if the app is actually running. So, Apple (or another handset maker) and AT&T (or another network) CAN'T simply tell where you are just because you have Glympse installed!
The whole point of Glympse is that is only shares your location with those you want to share it with, and only for the duration you specify.
Thank you. I have also been told that Glympses expire. I actually loved Glympse too, and that's why I wrote about it. I thought the accelerometer was what made the real time tracking possible, but good on you for correcting me; that's one reason I write–to learn:-)
Francine Hardaway, Ph D
GV: 816.WRITTEN
First of all, Glympse is fantastic; I love it. However, I must point out a couple of errors in your post.nnAn accelerometer does not determine your location; a GPS receiver does, and the old iPhone had that too, as do many other phones.nnOn that note, Glympse is also available for Android and Windows Mobile – it is not just for iPhones (thankfully!)nnThe most important point, however, is how the system works, and it’s nowhere near as scary as you’re making out. A “Glympse” is basically an email or text message, as you say, but there’s nothing clever about that – it simply contains a URL. If you click on it on your computer, it takes you to glympse.com and shows you a map of where the traveller is. If you receive it on your mobile and follow the link, it might still open your browser and go to the Glympse website or, if you have the Glympse app yourself, it could open that instead.nnThe crucial thing is that the Glympse app on the traveller’s phone ONLY sends the position to glympse.com for the duration of the Glympse, and ONLY if the app is actually running. So, Apple (or another handset maker) and AT&T (or another network) CAN’T simply tell where you are just because you have Glympse installed!nnThe whole point of Glympse is that is only shares your location with those you want to share it with, and only for the duration you specify.
Thank you. I have also been told that Glympses expire. I actually loved Glympse too, and that’s why I wrote about it. I thought the accelerometer was what made the real time tracking possible, but good on you for correcting me; that’s one reason I write–to learn:-)rnrnFrancine Hardaway, Ph DrnGV: 816.WRITTEN
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