Google Latitude has already caused a stir only a month after its launch. The new service from Google, which allows friends and family to keep track of each other through their mobile handsets, has been criticised by MPs who claim that it could provide a threat to the privacy of the nation.

A group of four Liberal Democrat MPs have signed an Early Day Motion in parliament asking that the government looks into the service and the potential threat to privacy that it represents.

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that we as a country faced an “insidious threat to our liberties”, and that Latitude represents an “unnecessary danger”.

Google has responded by saying that Latitude is only available to people who opt in to use it. As a result, people signed up to the service cannot simply be tracked by anyone.

But there are worries that it could be misused, and that companies could use the information in ways that would affect the privacy of the users.

Google has said that protecting privacy is a “key consideration”, and that the service has a safety feature built in to alert users when the service is in operation, meaning it could not be used covertly by anyone.

Privacy is a hot topic at the moment, especially with the advances being made in social networking and mobile technology. Anything which poses a threat to the privacy of the public should certainly be looked into for any relevant threat it represents, although it is unlikely that this latest scare will lead to much. If anything, it will provide great publicity for Google.