Yahoo Launches Fire Eagle: Location Sharing

Yahoo has joined the companies working on helping people stay connected through location technology, the company announced today. They have launched Fire Eagle – as a sub domain of Yahoo.net.

An information page explains the beta here:

“Fire Eagle shares your location information with services and applications that you choose. This location information is obtained from the web or your mobile device.

Information Collection and Use Practices

* Fire Eagle collects your current location information from location-enabled devices or services that you authorize. The specificity of the location data collected by Fire Eagle (e.g., city, street, latitude/longitude, etc.) depends on the authorized device or service that you link with Fire Eagle.
o You can view the service(s) or device(s) updating your location, the location indicated, and the time passed since collection at the “My Locations” tab.
* Fire Eagle shares your location information with application(s) that you authorize to obtain your information from the Fire Eagle database.
o If you authorize an application to obtain your location data from the Fire Eagle database, you may go to the “My Applications” tab and choose the specificity of location data available to the application from the drop-down list.
o In approximately 45 days, you will be sent an email to reauthorize the sharing of your location data with your Fire Eagle enabled application(s). If you do not respond to this email within 10 days, authorization will be automatically revoked; however, you can later reauthorize your application(s) to interact with Fire Eagle’s location database.

Practices Regarding Your Ability to Update or Delete Information

* If you want to prevent all applications from reading your location from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Hide Me.” Your current location will continue to be stored by Fire Eagle.
* If you want to prevent a single application from reading your location or providing the Fire Eagle database with your location, go to the “My Applications” tab and delete the application.
* If you want to remove previously stored location data from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Delete my location info.” The “Delete my location info” action will have no effect on information you previously authorized Fire Eagle to share with Fire Eagle enabled applications.

Other

* When you use Fire Eagle, you are subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.”