I’ve been using the beta of Fire Eagle for a good few months, what’s interesting about it is that it doesn’t do anything.

It’s a repository for your geo-location that other services can get and set via the API — and you’ve got fine control over the level of data you let each service have.. That’s means it’s great for privacy, as you can set what info gets to the third-party services as well as using their settings to control who gets to know your location.

I’m waiting for an automatically location transmitting iPhone app — which will mean that I can set this stuff up and forget about it, rather than having to decide to “change location”which I never remember to do.

I think it’s important to remember that you don’t HAVE to share your location with any PEOPLE. Fire Eagle is still useful if it’s capturing your location to make your searches better or to show you bars in your area. Your friends never need to know where you are (or you can just show them which neighbourhood / city you’re in if you think they’d find that interesting).

Thanks Jon, interesting to hear how it’s being used.

Tom - cheers for stopping by and clarifying that point. Will get round to trying the service out soon!