Let's contrast this to Loopt, shall we? Loopt allows you to turn the service off and even spoof your location. This is totally the opposite. Once you're in, you're in. Oh, yeah. They're going to charge you per use!Husbands who are not where they are supposed to be could soon be in danger of being "sniffed" out by a mobile phone service that gives suspicious partners an electronic map showing the location of their spouse.
The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (Sniff) is a new application, accessed via Facebook or mobile phone, which could bring an end to frantic "Where r u?" text messages.
The service, popular in Scandinavia, promises to provide users with a detailed map of their friends' locations, any time and anywhere. However, there are fears that Sniff could be abused by employers to remove the last vestiges of privacy from staff.
Useful Networks, the American company behind Sniff, promised that only consumers who gave their permission could be electronically tracked by the service, which operates across all mobile carriers. The company plans to charge users about 75p for each location "sniff", with the results for mobile customers sent by return SMS. But "sniffing" could become addictive.
It will be the first Facebook application to apply premium charges to customers' mobile bills. The heaviest users in Sweden are wireless-connected members of the social networking site, who have integrated the application into their personal profile page.
Hi Andrew,
I wanted to provide a clarifying point to your post, in that sniff is wholly based on user consent, notification & control. No friend can be located without having granted explicit permission to the locator. Additionally, even after having granted permission, a sniff user has the option to "go invisible," to block individual friends, or to remove friends. Finally, notifications are available if one wishes to be notified every time they are located. Indeed, once "you're in" you actually have full control over when or whether you "stay in."
Location technologies do have the potential for misuse, which is why Useful Networks is highly focused on building its products atop a strong foundation of user-centric permission & security. I would be happy to discuss these provisions in greater detail if you are interested.
Thank you,
Tony Bernard
tony at useful-networks dot com