Location-based service


Location-based service is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to search systems, in turn providing services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, entertainment, work, personal life, etc. Commonly used examples of location-based services include navigation software, social networking services, location-based advertising, and a tracking system. LBS can also include mobile commerce when taking the form of coupons or advertising directed at customers based on their current location. LBS also includes personalized weather services and even location-based games.
LBS is critical to many businesses as well as government organizations to drive real insight from data tied to a specific location where activities take place. The spatial patterns that vehicle location data and services can provide is one of its most powerful and useful aspects where location is a common denominator in all of these activities and can be leveraged to better understand patterns and relationships. Banking, surveillance, online commerce, and many weapon systems are dependent on LBS.
Access policies are controlled by location data or time-of-day constraints, or a combination thereof. As such, an LBS is an information service and has a number of uses in social networking today as information, in entertainment or security, which is accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and which uses information on the geographical position of the mobile device.
This concept of location-based systems is not compliant with the standardized concept of real-time locating systems and related local services, as noted in ISO/IEC 19762-5 and ISO/IEC 24730-1. While networked computing devices generally do very well to inform consumers of days old data, the computing devices themselves can also be tracked, even in real-time. LBS privacy issues arise in that context, and are documented below.

History

Location-based services are widely used in many computer systems and applications. Modern location-based services are made possible by technological developments such as the World Wide Web, satellite navigation systems, and the widespread use of mobile phones.
Location-based services were developed by integrating data from satellite navigation systems, cellular networks, and mobile computing, to provide services based on the geographical locations of users. Over their history, location-based software has evolved from simple synchronization-based service models to authenticated and complex tools for implementing virtually any location-based service model or facility.
There is currently no agreed upon criteria for defining the market size of location-based services, but the European GNSS Agency estimated that 40% of all computer applications used location-based software as of 2013, and 30% of all Internet searches were for locations.
LBS is the ability to open and close specific data objects based on the use of location or time as controls and triggers or as part of complex cryptographic key or hashing systems and the data they provide access to. Location-based services may be one of the most heavily used application-layer decision framework in computing.
The Global Positioning System was first developed by the United States Department of Defense in the 1970s, and was made available for worldwide use and use by civilians in the 1980s. Research forerunners of today's location-based services include the infrared Active Badge system, the Ericsson-Europolitan GSM LBS trial by Jörgen Johansson, and the master thesis written by Nokia employee Timo Rantalainen in 1995.
In 1990 International Teletrac Systems, founded in Los Angeles CA, introduced the world's first dynamic real-time stolen vehicle recovery services. As an adjacency to this they began developing location-based services that could transmit information about location-based goods and services to custom-programmed alphanumeric Motorola pagers. In 1996 the US Federal Communications Commission issued rules requiring all US mobile operators to locate emergency callers. This rule was a compromise resulting from US mobile operators seeking the support of the emergency community in order to obtain the same protection from lawsuits relating to emergency calls as fixed-line operators already had.
In 1997 Christopher Kingdon, of Ericsson, handed in the Location Services stage 1 description to the joint GSM group of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and the American National Standards Institute. As a result, the LCS sub-working group was created under ANSI T1P1.5. This group went on to select positioning methods and standardize Location Services, later known as Location Based Services. Nodes defined include the Gateway Mobile Location Centre, the Serving Mobile Location Centre and concepts such as Mobile Originating Location Request, Network Induced Location Request and Mobile Terminating Location Request.
As a result of these efforts in 1999 the first digital location-based service patent was filed in the US and ultimately issued after nine office actions in March 2002. The patent has controls which when applied to today's networking models provide key value in all systems.
In 2000, after approval from the world’s twelve largest telecom operators, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia jointly formed and launched the Location Interoperability Forum Ltd. This forum first specified the Mobile Location Protocol, an interface between the telecom network and an LBS application running on a server in the Internet domain. Then, much driven by the Vodafone group, LIF went on to specify the Location Enabling Server, a "middleware", which simplifies the integration of multiple LBS with an operators infrastructure. In 2004 LIF was merged with the Open Mobile Association. An LBS work group was formed within the OMA.
In 2002, Marex.com in Miami Florida designed the world first marine asset telemetry device for commercial sale. The device, designed by Marex and engineered by its partner firms in telecom and hardware, was capable of transmitting location data and retrieving location-based service data via both cellular and satellite-based communications channels. Utilizing the Orbcomm satellite network, the device had multi level SOS features for both MAYDAY and marine assistance, vessel system condition and performance monitoring with remote notification, and a dedicated hardware device similar to a GPS tracking unit. Based upon the device location, it was capable of providing detailed bearing, distance and communication information to the vessel operator in real time, in addition to the marine assistance and MAYDAY features. The concept and functionality was coined Location Based Services by the principal architect and product manager for Marex, Jason Manowitz, SVP, Product and Strategy. The device was branded as Integrated Marine Asset Management System, and the proof-of-concept beta device was demonstrated to various US government agencies for vessel identification, tracking, and enforcement operations in addition to the commercial product line. The device was capable of tracking assets including ships, planes, shipping containers, or any other mobile asset with a proper power source and antenna placement. Marex's financial challenges were unable to support product introduction and the beta device disappeared.
The first consumer LBS-capable mobile Web device was the Palm VII, released in 1999. Two of the in-the-box applications made use of the ZIP-code–level positioning information and share the title for first consumer LBS application: the Weather.com app from The Weather Channel, and the TrafficTouch app from Sony-Etak / Metro Traffic.
The first LBS services were launched during 2001 by TeliaSonera in Sweden and by EMT in Estonia. TeliaSonera and EMT based their services on the Ericsson Mobile Positioning System.
Other early LBSs include friendzone, launched by swisscom in Switzerland in May 2001, using the technology of valis ltd. The service included friend finder, LBS dating and LBS games. The same service was launched later by Vodafone Germany, Orange Portugal and Pelephone in Israel. Microsoft's Wi-Fi-based indoor location system RADAR, MIT's Cricket project using ultrasound location and Intel's Place Lab with wide-area location.
In May 2002, go2 and AT&T Mobility launched the first mobile LBS local search application that used Automatic Location Identification technologies mandated by the FCC. go2 users were able to use AT&T's ALI to determine their location and search near that location to obtain a list of requested locations ranked by proximity to the ALI provide by the AT&T wireless network. The ALI determined location was also used as a starting point for turn-by-turn directions.
The main advantage is that mobile users do not have to manually specify postal codes or other location identifiers to use LBS, when they roam into a different location.

Location industry

There are various companies that sell access to an individual's location history and this is estimated to be a $12 billion industry composed of collectors, aggregators and marketplaces. As of 2021, a company named Near claimed to have data from 1.6 billion people in 44 different countries, Mobilewalla claims data on 1.9 billion devices, and X-Mode claims to have a database of 25 percent of the U.S. adult population. An analysis, conducted by the non-profit newsroom called The Markup, found six out of 47 companies who claimed over a billion devices in their database. As of 2021, there are no rules or laws governing who can buy an individual's data.

Applications

Location-based services are used in a wide range of applications, spanning consumer, commercial, and public safety sectors.

Navigation and information services

The most common application of LBS is in navigation and local search.