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)
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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)