Lost & Found: Tracking Loved Ones With GPS

Cell phone provider Verizon Wireless plans to launch a Global Positioning System (GPS) child tracking service in its cell phone in May of this year. According to Mobile Tracker:

The service will debut on the LG Migo, a kid-friendly phone that the carrier launched late last year. Privacy concerns have stalled the launch of a GPS based tracking service so far, but Verizon Wireless has apparently decided that it will be a popular feature for safety-conscience parents.

The service will reportedly cost between $10 and $15 per month. Parents will be able to locate the Migo phone within several yards using the their own cell phone or an Internet site. Parents can also receive a text message if the child leaves a designated area in a service called "“geo-fencing."”

While Americans have struggled with privacy issues inherentnt in the technology, in Japan they seemed to have embraced such services. Asahi.com reportsts that such GPS tracking services are a popular way of keeping track of senior citizens.

Families are increasing asking elderly members who suffer from such things as Dementia and Alzheimers to wear a tracking device. In Nara Prefecture, six municipal governments have been offering GPS devices to residents since 2004. Family members that fear a loved one has wandered off can simply call up the fire department which will fax them the elderly member's current position.