Gone are the weekends when Nolwazi would spend her nights calling family members and friends to ask whether they have seen her children while they are out with friends clubbing the night away. Now, using her cellphone, she will be able to locate her children without spending long nights worrying where they might be.
Cellular network Vodacom has initiated a new location-based service on its network called Look4me. It is a service that enables contract subscribers on Vodacom to find any cellphone user on that same network and have their location details delivered via an SMS — provided the user has consented to being located. The company is promising the service will bring its consumers ”peace of mind”.
”Being able to determine the general location of a cellphone has obvious value for family members who may require the peace of mind of knowing where their loved ones are,” says Mthobi Tyamzashe, group executive of corporate affairs at Vodacom.
Look4me is being billed as a ”passive”, location-based service to address the obvious concerns that it could be misused to invade the privacy of other cellphone users.
Tyamzashe says the service has built-in safety controls to ensure that a user can never be located without first providing explicit consent — by granting location rights to a specific cellphone number. ÂÂ
Before Look4me passes a user’s location information to another person, the user must register and grant location rights via an SMS reply to an invitation message. The service can then pass the user’s location information to the specific cellphone number to which the user has granted rights.
The service does have a few limitations, however. If a phone has been switched off or is outside the network’s range, the network won’t be able to find the phone’s current location. Instead, Vodacom says that Look4me will deliver the last location that was registered (if available) together with the date, time and accuracy. If the phone has not been used for more than two days the network may not have any location information.
The accuracy of the service is also dependent on the density of cellphone masts in a given area. The greater the density of an area’s masts, the greater the accuracy of the location details delivered via the SMS. Vodacom says that in built-up areas such as Sandton, the accuracy can be down to 150m, but in rural areas such as the outer Karoo, the accuracy may be up to 10km.
Rival cellular operator Cell C echoes Vodacom’s concerns around privacy.
”It would be interesting to know where someone is, but there are also issues of privacy. People want that — cellphones give you anonymity,” says Moira Sheridon, media manager for Cell C.
Sheridon would not divulge any specifics surrounding Cell C’s own plans for a similar service, but says the company intends to launch its version at the end of the year.
Vodacom says it has ensured that its service complies with South African legislation as well as constitutional rights to privacy. A cellphone user can choose not to be located at any time by keying a special code into their phone.
”South Africans live in a diverse and challenging country, and services like Look4me help put minds at ease so we can enjoy the many positive aspects of living here,” says Tyamzashe.
Vodacom describes Look4me as ”Africa’s first” and, although it is the first cellphone-based service for consumers, Sheridon notes that vehicle-tracking company Netstar already uses cellphone technology to find stolen vehicles.
Up until now the service has been free for users. From April Vodacom users can subscribe by paying an extra R10 a month, with further charges for location requests and messages with location maps.