Gail and I went on a trip to Kentucky and Tennessee and used Google Maps on a smartphone almost every time we drove. I do not know how we could have found our way to all the places we went to without Google Maps. It was very convenient to hear the voice say to turn here. It was also safer. (I remember about 26-27 years ago driving some of Colorado mountain roads with a map in front of me trying to figure out where my next turn was. Scary! I was definitely driving distracted when looking at the map.)
To be able to put in an address and get directions for the quickest route to that address is very nice. Google Maps will take note of heavy traffic in finding you the quickest route. This means that Google makes use of a large number of cell phones in cars that it is monitoring so that it knows where the traffic has slowed down. It also means that Google Maps may send you down some residential streets instead of the main arteries.
There was only one time that Google Maps got it wrong on our trip. We were looking to walk (part way) across the Mississippi River and our destination for a pedestrian bridge that was close to the freeway bridge. Google told us that we arrived at our destination while still on the freeway bridge, but it was likely very close to the destination. We were able to follow signs the rest of the way and arrived at the parking lot almost under the freeway bridge. It also took us to the Arkansas side of the bridge when we were expecting to stay on the Tennessee side.
Cell phones have GPS which means the phone can be tracked to within about 16 feet under normal conditions. We gave Google the ability to track us everywhere. Google Maps is not needed to track a phone. With GPS enabled or even without GPS, any cell phone is a tracker. One can still track your phone without GPS by using the cell phone towers. The using, buying and selling of this data is one of the major drivers of business today. This data collection is big business and it has been called “surveillance capitalism”. There are a lot of companies making money off of collected data about ourselves, and Google is one of the big ones.
So why use Google Maps? It provides tremendous value in traveling from place to place. Even though it is free, it does still cost you your privacy. Is the value worth more than the loss of privacy? I think so, though it is really the cell phone that is the tracker. Google Maps is just a program that makes use of the cell phone tracking capabilities.
Google Maps runs on a computer or a smartphone, but to use it like we did you need a smartphone (or a laptop with a cellular connection). Today in America, the expectation is that everyone has a smartphone. If you are without one, many times it means that you must jump through extra hoops to get what you want. With a smartphone, you have the internet available and lots of apps that can help you. Again it is good to ask if the smartphone provides more value than the cost? Again, I think so, but you need to be aware that, besides the financial cost, there is also a cost of privacy that needs to be considered. And for some, the addictive nature of some of the apps may raise the cost of having a smartphone to be too high.
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