Developers Can Now Access Locations of 250 Million Phones Across U.S. Carriers

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/developers_can_now_access_locations_of_250_million.php

by bengross • 16 years ago

30 13 16 years ago

freejoe76• 16 years ago

I'm looking through all this, and one question comes to mind: you iphone users know when an app first asks if it can access your location data? Well, I'm thinking here: Does that mean it can access your location data even when you're not using that app?

wmf• 16 years ago

In the age of multitasking, I'm not sure that "when you're not using the app" is even defined. But yeah, it looks like this service can get your location even if you haven't installed an app at all.

ktsmith• 16 years ago

It very much sounds like the carriers are selling out their customers location data.

My first thought when I read about this was how the hell do I opt out. I'm guessing you won't be able to until the carriers are inevitably sued.

Judson• 16 years ago

Anyone have an idea about how they are getting the location data? Tower triangulation?

fulford4• 16 years ago

Their contracts with the carriers allow for remote pings of the GPS chip (if there is GPS on the handset). Otherwise it's just cell tower triangulation.

alanh• 16 years ago

Not a word about opt-in vs. opt-out. Privacy, schmivacy?

inerte• 16 years ago

Reading the developer section of the company website, I understand it's opt-in (per app).

fulford4• 16 years ago

It is 100% opt-in, but there is no "app" needed on the actual phone - so you're totally right if by "per app" you mean "per developer" or "per use case." So I might allow one company to locate my phone for a family-finder scenario, and another company to locate my phone for local weather alerts, for example. No app required in either case. Hope this helps.

asmithmd1• 16 years ago

Don't get worried about privacy, in order to locate a phone a potential user of your location based service first has to create an account at http://www.veriplace.com/ Then respond to to an SMS to the phone number to opt in.

As a developer you then have to have your application approved and only then do you have the privilege of using their 5 step process to try to get a phone's location

http://developer.veriplace.com/devportal/developerguide

A cell tower location will cost you around .02 and an attempt at a more accurate will cost around .05

Developers Can Now Access Locations of 250 Million Phones Across U.S. Carriers

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