According to CTIA, "the hallmark of these Guidelines is notice. LBS providers must inform LBS users about how their location information will be used, disclosed, and protected so that a potential LBS user can make an informed decision whether or not to use the service or authorize the disclosure." Also, "LBS providers must obtain user consent before initiating an LBS or disclosing location information. The form of consent may vary with the type of service or other circumstances, but the LBS provider bears the burden of establishing that informed consent has been obtained before initiating an LBS or disclosing location information." Providers should also allow LBS users to revoke previous consent.
Finally, the document urges LBS providers to offer safeguards in terms of security, retention and storage of location information; reporting abuse; and education of users in safe practices.
At iPling we applaud the industry's efforts to come together and develop standards to build confidence in LBS across the spectrum of interested parties. LBS have tremendous promise to enrich our lives; the innovations will come even faster with everyone on the same page regarding best practices. For our part, we're committed to ensuring the safety, comfort, and control of plingers. Your privacy is our top concern! For example:
- In the current service, you manually declare your location. As a further safeguard, when we map your location we mask it within the radius of about a five-minute walk.
- Your location is only visible when you activate a profile and one of the tags in your active profile matches a tag in someone else's profile. You're never visible to other users at large. You can become invisible at any time simply by deactivating your profiles. You're in control!
- Your personal information is never shared with other iPling users or third parties
- For further details of our privacy policy, click the "Terms of Service" link in the footer of our web site (you'll need to select a language before the footer is visible).
