Internet giant Google has released a free software pack that tracks people and show users where a friend or family member is currently located through a mobile phone or the Internet. Called “Latitude,” the new program uses GPS systems and cell phone towers to triangulate and locate individual people via their cell phone systems. While this technology has been available to police and other law enforcement agencies for some time, this is the first time it is being made available to the general public at no charge. 

The system will not work on all cell phones. For now, Latitude only works with Symbian-based devices such as Nokia Smart Phones, and G1 phones with an updated Android operating system. Latitude will work on most Blackberry phones. Users can set the level of privacy though their Google account to enable or disable the GPS locator service.