Developers Can Now Access Locations of 250 Million Phones Across U.S. Carriers • Hacker News Board

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

#11

Post by fulford » Wed, Sep 22, 2010, 5:15 PM UTC

bengross wrote: post #6

ktsmith wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The company says the service is opt in this press release: http://www.location-labs.com/press_article.php?newsid=80 and in the comments here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/21/location-labs/ and here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_geofencing_the_next_... Although, I have to say this is not at all clear (at least to me) from reading through their website or even by reading their privacy policy http://location…

Yes, it's 100% opt in.

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

#12

Post by fulford » Wed, Sep 22, 2010, 5:16 PM UTC

1337p337 wrote: post #7

bengross wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company says the service is opt in this press release: http://www.location-labs.com/press_article.php?newsid=80 and in the comments here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/21/location-labs/ and here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_geofencing_the_next_... Although, I have to say this is not at all clear (at least to me) from reading through their website or even by reading their privacy policy http://location…

This article seems to resemble PR copypasta, but over-looking that, it is a little comforting that the thing is opt-in. That kind of sheds doubt on the 250M figure, though. Do they mean 250M potential users?

Exactly - 250M potential users is what they mean. Right now they probably have very few consumer opt-ins.

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

#13

Post by fulford » Wed, Sep 22, 2010, 5:18 PM UTC

inerte wrote: post #10

alanh wrote: post #8

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

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

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.

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

#14

Post by fulford » Wed, Sep 22, 2010, 5:20 PM UTC

Judson wrote: post #4

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

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.