Google Earth on Desire needs my Contacts - why ?

[pacman10]

Just got my HTC Desire and went to install Google Earth and Google Maps and up pops a warning that both will access my Contacts and one of them (I can't remember which) will have full access to my SD memory. Why on earth is this (excuse the unintended pun) ?

I'm privacy-oriented and see no reason why my Contacts should be shared willy-nilly with the rest of the world.

Does anyone know how to get round this ?

 

[lekky]

google maps probably to do with the latitude feature i suspect.

 

[pacman10]

What is the Latitude feature in Google Maps* and why would it need my Contacts ?

* I can't answer this question myself because I haven't installed Google Maps because of this issue.

 

[nx1977]

If you enable latitude, and have a Google email in a contact, then providing the other user is also using latitude, then you can see each others location.

Latitude is opt in, so sounds like you won't use this so have nothing to worry about