New Phone Uses GPS To Locate Your Contacts

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."

Comments

Re:Not really a privacy invasion:

[TubeSteak]

I buy two phones & stick one + lots of extra batteries in/on your car.

Privacy invasion or stalker heaven?
You decide.

Re:wow, that's every stalkers wet dream

[frakir]

A different approach might really work.

Imagine opt-in GPS tracking instead of opt-out. Eg: Bob requests tracking of Alice within $distance for $duration, Alice might agree or not, but default is OFF.

Some phone pairs, like mom-child might have tracking ON and not possible to switch off (it might go into cell service plan).

Definitely something I would love to have....