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Friday, March 28. 2008

Wall Street Journal on LBS and Privacy

LBS

The WSJ is right on top of things with an article titled, Phones Will Soon Tell Where You Are. It focuses on people tracking and related services, specifically Loopt, which offers "buddy tracking," now offered by Sprint and soon, the article suggests, by Verizon Wireless.

Of interest to me:

He [Sam Altman, Loopt co-founder and CEO] set out to give Loopt strict rules to prevent misuse. The most significant is that cellphone users who sign up can make their whereabouts available only to a network of friends who also buy the service.

I guess that's a safety feature, but aren't some crimes committed by friends and relatives? Moreover, isn't that also a marketing ploy, so they don't just get you to buy in, but also your "circle?"

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in LBS at 07:35 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Bookmark and Share

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Adena: A user might be able to enhance her Loopt privacy by publishing terms of service that impose privacy rules on people who access the user's Loopt data. http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/11/privacy-advocates-such-as-nyu-professor.html
#1 Benjamin Wright (Link) on 2008-03-28 11:20 (Reply)

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