Jayvee of Cellphone9 recently posted about lighter side of 3G joking about how it will make harder for husbands to lie to their wives about their location.Though this one was in good humour I recalled having read about some IITian having created a cellphone tracking technology where one can keep track of exact location of  any other cellphone, and this one did not need 3G either it was a network-operator sided technology and can be used simply via SMS. (link to the article)

In fact Airtel had stated at the time that they were adopting this technology and that things were in place. That was more than a year back and there has been no further word on this from either Airtel or Mobiance Technology (the company formed by those IIT guys). However a visit on Mobiance Website throws a light to the fact that this product is already being used in ‘corporate versions’ for fleet & workforce tracking and that ‘consumer version’ of these products are also available.

Let’s first talk about the ‘corporate version’..

..the website states that “Corporate users can specify a list of mobile numbers, belonging to their mobile workforce, and obtain their location on a map through a web interface.” effectively meaning that if you are one of the ‘workforce’ whose number has been registered your boss can see exactly where you go at all times (there being a mention of ‘history feature’ too).

And the  only respite for privacy seems to be this single statement, “To avoid misuse and to secure privacy, the Corporate Tracking product asks for a one-time permission from each mobile subscriber being tracked through SMS.” Now, since this is a one time permission it is so highly likely that the companies can buy mobile connections, activate this feature and then give it to the workforce as a fringe benefit.

Among the ‘consumer services’ there are two products, “Location based dating” where one can find dates around your location. A smart idea, with sufficient privacy barriers (the number is not disclosed until both parties agree, etc). This can in fact be quite a hit if companies adopt it.

The second one, ‘Child Track’ is the one which again could be subject to lot of privacy issues. While no way of how this is to be implemented is mentioned on the website, some idea was given the in article mentioned earlier, quoting from it “The tracked mobile user has three options and may give permission for one-time usage or unlimited access. Though the third option allows the tracked mobile user to deny access it will not be a permanent one. The same service can also be accessed through the Internet.”

In such a case imagine how hard can it be to activate the “permanent access” even if he has physical access to the victim’s phone for as little as 2 minutes.

While the ‘corporate versions’ of these programs are already being used by quite a few companies, the ‘consumer versions’ are not seen out yet, and there need to be some serious modifications in both the cases to make sure the privacy of users is not invaded.

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