Personal GPS in a Mobile Phone

i4u writes "NTT DoCoMo announced today that it will introduce it's first Global Positioning Service (GPS)-compatible handset F661i, at the end of April. The GPS mobile phone enables users to determine their location at the touch of a button, and download location specific information via i-mode like graphical maps and other interesting information about the area. This is not like the GPS functionality that the US Phone companies introduced so far. In the US the GPS coordinates are only used for emergencies and not yet for actually providing value to the user in other situations. Users of the F661i can send their current location to other i-mode enabled phones. In addition, a memo function allows users to store location information, including map, telephone numbers and addresses. The phone supports three applications of the GPS functionality: 1)The GPS enabled Phone can be tracked by via a service, useful for instance for parents to track their kids. See also the Wherify GPS Person Locator. 2)Submission of current location in case of emergency to pre-defined organizations, like police, fire departments etc. Similar to the GPS functionality available in the US. 3)The F661i also can be used by businesses to track their delivery trucks and more. Similar to Car GPS devices."

Comments

thanks but no thanks

[elmegil]

If the user of the phone can turn the tracking features off, it's useless for tracking kids.

If the user of the phone cannot turn the tracking features off, they're just handing "big brother" another tool to track them with.

Re:thanks but no thanks

[schmink182]

While you have a good point, your first argument isn't entirely accurate. If the tracking features were turned off, the parent would assume that the child was up to no good. However, if they left the cell phone by itself while they went off to have lots of drugs and promiscuous sex, the parent wouldn't have any idea; so it's still worthless.

unlike in the US

[The Pim]

In the US the GPS coordinates are only used for emergencies and not yet for actually providing value to the user in other situations.

I can't figure this out. I first saw this feature in a phone over a year ago, and it seems common now. So all the manufacturers have gone to the expense of adding GPS to their phones, yet they don't even include a simple "what are my coordinates" feature in the UI. What are they waiting for?

Re:unlike in the US

[alch]

There are three ways to find out your position in a network. GPS is only one of them. Others do "triangulate" from towers (a little more complex than that). That was one of the requirements of E911 - to be able to find you WITHOUT a special phone.

The new thing presented in this article is about additional services to be provided (either for a fee or as an incentive to switch). For phones with GPS this is not that special, but for phones without it, access to network bassed positioning services might be pretty cool.

For more insight on these - look at the Qualcomm phone chipstets. Most of the new ones have a integrated GPS system on them. These are used in CDMA phones (in the US/CAN - Sprint, Verizon, Bell Mobility, Telus) - Qualcomm makes the chips for 90% of the CDMA phones on the market - Kyocera, Samsung, Qualcomm (duh).

Saved!

[arvindn]

Just when it becomes illegal to "conceal the existence or place of origin or destination of any telecommunications service", we are saved by a service that allows us to seamlessly track the caller's location!!!

Hey, mine's broken!

[olePigeon (Wik)]

Not exactly the best time to introduce a GPS phone. Since the military is messing everything up for civilians, everyone's phone will be 300 meters off or given random coordinates. But what's 300 meters these days, eh?

Great, so does it work inside?

[sbwoodside]

?? I'm guessing the answer is no.

simon

Why privacy matters.

[FuzzyDaddy]

Unless you are doing something wrong, why does it matter that people can track you?

Because there are things which aren't illegal, but not the government's business. Suppose I'm married but carrying on a homosexual affair with my neighbor. Then suppose I'm an activist of some sort (pick your favorite cause for the sake of argument.)

What sort of temptation would this knowledge of my personal life present to someone in the government to whom I was causing trouble? I'm doing nothing illegal, but by finding out something that could be embarassing to me, they can abuse their power to gain extra-legal power over me, by threating to blackmail me.

For anyone who thinks this is an overly paranoid scenario over what the government would do, read about the information collected about civil rights activists in the 60's.