TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: New Phone Uses GPS to Locate Your Friends

New Phone Uses GPS to Locate Your Friends

Zonk (zonk@telecom-digest.org)
Thu, 16 Nov 2006 15:23:52 -0600

New Phone Uses GPS To Locate Your Contacts
Posted by Zonk on Thursday November 16, @03:19PM
from the oh-crap-here-comes-ted dept.

Salvance writes:

"Palo Alto-based Loopt Inc. has announced an agreement with Sprint
Nextel to immediately begin offering their cell phone mapping service
to all 3.8 Million Sprint Boost subscribers (Sprint Boost is a service
specifically targeting the under-25 market). This service will notify
users when another subscriber in their contact list is within 25
miles, providing a real-time map displaying their contacts' locations.
According to the article, the only apparent privacy safeguard is to
provide users the option to 'temporarily cut out from being spotted by
their friends.' Given a retailer's propensity to package together
extra services, and the average user's lack of knowledge regarding
their phone's capabilities, this new service seems ripe for abuse."

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