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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."
I'd think that'd be the bigger news. They're so tiny! And now I will never lose them.
I'd rather know when my contacts are within .1 mile than within 25 miles. At least 10% of my contacts spend most of their lives within 25 miles.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
how much do you think sprint is gonna get owned in lawsuits?
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
...can anyone here tell me what makes this even remotely (pardon the expression) a GOOD idea?
We have been using technology to bring people closer, but there are some advantages to keeping one's distance.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
Hmm? Oh, pardom me guys, it's a mesasge on my phone...
ted from acctg is shaggin ur gf lol
Thanks, Sprint!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
FTFA: "The real-time tracking would only occur for those who have agreed to be located and had given the user their mobile phone numbers." So you have to agree to be tracked in the first place.
Does one agree to be located in general, or on a per-person basis? If it's in general, how can I know who's tracking me once my number is available to them?
...
I'm not worried about stalkers, personally, but this is the sort of thing that you might see being handed out to girls on college campuses or boys on grade-school ones.
Married couples could see this causing trouble.
Tony: "You shut tracking off for a few hours there. Where were you?"
Toni: "You're a freak. I'm leaving you."
Tony: "For the guy/girl/goat that you were off with when you went off the radar?!"
Honestly, though, it's kind of a cool feature.
So when I tell one friend I'm staying in because I'm tired, and go out with another friend for some beers, and tell yet another I was working late, I'm gonna get screwed when they all locate me nearby.
How about they work on dropped calls and poor coverage first.
Welcome, young Skywalker. [Looking at cell phone] I have been expecting you.
Overuse of the Pumping Lemma causes blindness
Lack of knowledge about a phone? Get real. This is the under-25 crowd we're talking about. Do you think the 40+ year-old moms & dads are going to be the ones lining up for these products? And to a GenY'er, a phone is almost an extention of themselves. Ringtones, downloads, games, IM's, push-to-talk, voicemail, etc. are all an essential part of staying online.
That being said, I do think that there is potential for abuse. Stalkers, for instance. Or college profs following up on students too "sick" to attend class. (but plenty well enough to catch a movie or go to the beach, instead!) Also, how long before this information is subpoenaed by attorneys. (For instance, in auto collision cases -- if client was at a bar for three hours prior to a fiery crash, that doesn't look good.)
However, it could be a cool feature -- see who's nearby for a quick lunch meet-up. Finding your family/friends at an amusement park/mall/beach/etc.
Like nearly all technologies, it's benign. It's up to the user to make it good or bad.
When I call someone on a land line, I know exactly where they are.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Alright, when Jim walks in the door, everyone turn on their phones !
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
-- M.B.W.A. - Management By Walking Around
:%s/Can you hear me now?/We know where you are now./gc
A lot of cell phones can already show yourself and 911 where you are. The difference here is you are seeing where other people are. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, in fact it could be a good thing, but I would want a lot of control over it. An easy way to turn it on/off (1 or 2 button pushes max) and being able to specify who on my contact list I would want to see where I am.
Helio is a joint venture between South Korea's SK Telecom and EarthLink. They launched a slick new device (don't call it a phone =)) last week called the Drift that includes a hybrid GPS receiver (real GPS and A-GPS). It launched with a couple of GPS-enabled services: GPS-enabled Google maps and Buddy Beacon. The latter sounds pretty similar to Boost's solution, but takes a different approach to privacy.
With Buddy Beacon, users must intentionally broadcast their location to their friends list. It does not constantly track your whereabouts and auto-broadcast your new locale. It's more like "find me here" than "i'm searching for so-and-so..."
Blue skies, Barthy Burgers, girls...
you have nothing to worry about.
But I think the government is very happy about this service. I'm sure the phone company would be more than happy to provide this information to the government, if requested, regardless of whether or not you agree to be tracked. Remember, if you irritate the government, you could lose your license to the radio spectrum on which your revenue depends.
After all, if you have nothing to hide why would you object to the government knowing where you are at all times? Don't you realize that this is for the safety of the children? Are you really going to object to technology that could help solve a kidnapping?
It is optional today. But not for long. As soon as the government figures out that this can be used to track everyone, in real time, it will become mandatory. They'll pass the law in the name of "protecting the children", or "fighting terrorism", etc...
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Hi everyone, I run corporate development over at loopt and am in charge of all things safety, security and privacy related and I just wanted to clear up some major misconceptions reflected in the original posting and in some of the threads, and to reinforce some of the messages presented by Sam Altman, our CEO, in an earlier thread. 1)loopt is entirely opt-in. You must choose to get loopt, choose to become someone's friend, choose to share location with that person and then, and only then, would that person have access to your location. 2)I can promise you that there are numerous privacy safeguards and that there is no way that Sprint Nextel (or us) would ever green-light a service that didn't do everything possible to protect everyone's privacy and safety. 3)Briefly, some of those safeguards include: a.Everything is opt-in b.You can turn-off location sharing, with individuals or with everyone, at any time from your phone or the web or via SMS c.loopt is a private network, not an open social network. You can't even invite someone to be your friend unless you already know their phone number, and there is no open browsing d.We don't ever keep your location history, just your current location, unless you explicitly and actively choose to store a location for your journal, a feature that comes out next week e.We verify loopt members as the holder of the handset account they are attempting to register, to remove any anonymity, the source of much of the misbehavior on the web f.We send frequent reminders to our members regarding their location sharing, and we have constant and conspicuous reminders throughout the application as well g.We've consulted with literally a dozen online and mobile safety groups, including ICAC, WebWiseKids, the Ponemon Organization, and NCMEC to make sure we've incorporated every best practice in the industry into the service We're very happy that so many people are already using the loopt service, and I hope this helps clear up some of the misconceptions. We're always happy get any questions or comments (feedback@loopt.com)