Loopt Announces Relationship with Verizon

Loopt is pleased to announce today a relationship with Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless customers can now leverage their phones' location-based services capabilities using Loopt to share location information, status messages, and geo-tagged photos with friends. The service will be available in the Get It Now® virtual store and on more than 20 popular Get It Now-capable phones, including the Chocolate by LG, the MOTORIZR™ Z6tv and Verizon Wireless G'zOne Type-S.

Today, Jessica Vascellaro and Amol Sharma of the Wall Street Journal wrote a very nice article about us. They captured how Loopt can be of value to our user audience and how we're paying attention to users' privacy through Loopt's privacy features. They write that location sharing and Loopt are the...

... result of the convergence of GPS with another digital phenomenon: a generation of young people who are comfortable sharing a great deal of personal information on social-networking Web sites and eager for still more ways to stay connected. [...] Vivek Agrawal, a 22-year-old composer in Palo Alto, Calif., uses the service offered by Sprint to know where 10 friends are at any given time and organize impromptu get-togethers. "I'm using it amongst my closest friends," he says. "Those are the people that I'm used to asking questions like, 'Where are you?'"

In addition, Jessica captures how shes uses Loopt in this cool video. Check it out!

 

For more information, check out our press release, and the post on TechCrunch.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From everyone at Loopt!

Image by Frederic Tort

Loopt Where It Is!

Sometimes, when browsing on Facebook, don't you wish you knew what your friends were doing and their whereabouts? Well, now you can! Download the Loopt Facebook app.

On the Friend Map, you can see what your friends are doing and where they are. It looks like James was hungry in Mountain View... If you're nearby, why not send him a message or give him a call and see if he's grabbing lunch somewhere?

Want to give your friends a heads up on your whereabouts? Tell them what's up by double clicking your location (our entering an address) and sharing with them. The message will appear on their Friend Map and Newsfeed.

Even better, if you have Loopt on your phone, whenever you "Share What's Up", your status and location automatically sync with your Loopt Facebook app. It really is that easy. Going to the lake over the weekend? How awesome would it be to let your Facebook friends know that you're sunbathing next to a pristine blue lake? Now you can!

When it Comes to Privacy & Security Innovation, Cooperation is Essential

Yesterday, I spoke on a panel at California’s 2008 Cyber Safe Summit – "Can You Find Me Now?" and my fellow panelists included Deepti Rohatgi from Yahoo! and Chris Hoofnagle of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic.  The exchange of ideas was a compelling example of the power of cooperation; we all learned from each other, our moderator, and the audience alike.  In particular, Deepti and I discussed the importance of making privacy and security a priority early on in the product development life cycle.  In addition, Chris gave a summary of his recently released study, which surveyed the attitudes of the California public toward their location data and the potential of government access to it; Research Report: A Supermajority of Californians Supports Limits on Law Enforcement Access to Cell Phone Location Information (pdf). 

It’s pretty clear to us here at Loopt that we can’t do it alone, not even close.  Our success to date in terms of privacy and security innovation simply would not have been possible without the great work and knowledgeable insights of several key partners including ConnectSafely, National Network to End Domestic Violence, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Internet Education Foundation, Progress & Freedom Foundation, Web Wise Kids, Family Online Safety Institute, and Cyber Safe California.

In this regard, Loopt is also proud to be part of the recently announced Internet Safety Technical Task Force originally founded by MySpace and now led by the Berkman Center at Harvard University; the organizers of this task force deftly included all of the key constituencies necessary for success... businesses, government, and NGOs.  For more information, please visit the Berkman Center Web Site. We’ll keep you posted on the progress!

What’s next? Loopt will be participating on a panel at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood, CA exploring Wireless Innovation. Maybe we’ll see you there….

Thoughts? Questions?   Comments?   Hit us!   privacy@loopt.com. 

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Brian is in deep discussions with leaders of the online privacy space at Burbank, CA