Privacy Lost: These Phones Can Find You

[rodeodance]

October 23, 2007
Privacy Lost: These Phones Can Find You
By LAURA M. HOLSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/technology/23mobile.html?hp=&pagewanted=print


Two new questions arise, courtesy of the latest advancement in cellphone technology: Do you want your friends, family, or colleagues to know where you are at any given time? And do you want to know where they are?

Obvious benefits come to mind. Parents can take advantage of the Global Positioning System chips embedded in many cellphones to track the whereabouts of their phone-toting children.

And for teenagers and 20-somethings, who are fond of sharing their comings and goings on the Internet, youth-oriented services like Loopt and Buddy Beacon are a natural next step.

Sam Altman, the 22-year-old co-founder of Loopt, said he came up with the idea in early 2005 when he walked out of a lecture hall at Stanford.