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Being tracked down by your mobile
The BBC reports on localisation services offered by UK mobile operators, allowing users to request the location (accurate within 200 meters) of a cell phone by simply sending it's phone number. Fortunately for Data Protection regulations, prior authorisation from the phone owner is required. "Before now network operators have offered these services to their own subscribers and few others. But location-based services are going to be much more common, now that locations can be requested for a few pence a time and firms such as Mobile Commerce and Verilocation are springing up to funnel location requests to the various networks, reports the BBC. Study: Location-aware mobiles will be "killer app"…An interesting report called "Mobilisation", argues that location-awareness may become the "killer app" of the next generation of mobile phones and can be downloaded (pdf) from independant think-tank Demos. Excerpts Demos Report: "In Japan, some users have created ‘buddy lists’ so their phone sends them a message when they are in the same area as a friend. More adventurous users are now experimenting with allowing their phones to contact strangers in the same vicinity who match their personal profile. An experimental system in Helsinki called Flirt enabled mobile users to leaves virtual messages or ‘hanging data’ in specific locations which would be picked up by the next user to pass the same location. The experiment turned the city into a chatroom of flirty Finns. "Mobilisation" concludes that people will gradually recognise the potential benefits of location-aware technology and accept the trade-off in reduced privacy. This has happened with other new services which required the disclosure of personal information in return for receiving a service. The taxi hailing system Zingo which connects the caller to the nearest cab is one obvious example of how location awareness would be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat by by most users. Demos believes that the government could help to grow awareness of the public benefits of mobile technology by undertaking not to request mobile location data for anything other than investigation of serious crime or terrorism".
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