LocationSmart, originally called TechnoCom Location Platform, is a location-as-a-service (LaaS) company based in

Carlsbad, California Carlsbad is a coastal city in the North County region of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is south of downtown Los Angeles and north of downtown San Diego. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 114,746. ...

, that provides location APIs to enterprises and operates a secure, cloud-based and privacy-protected platform. In February 2015, it acquired a competitor, Locaid. LocationSmart provides near real-time location data for devices including smartphones, feature phones, tablets, M2M, IoT and other connected devices on Tier 1 and Tier 2 wireless networks in the U.S. and Canada. This includes

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

T-Mobile US T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...

Sprint Corporation Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 ...

MetroPCS Metro by T-Mobile (formerly known as MetroPCS and also known simply as Metro) is an American prepaid wireless service provider and brand owned by T-Mobile US. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the U ...

U.S. Cellular United States Cellular Corporation (doing business as UScellular) is an American mobile network operator. It is a subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems Inc. (which owns an 84% stake). The company was formed in 1983 and is headquartered in ...

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...

and

Telus Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voi ...

History

Founded in 1995, TechnoCom Corporation was headquartered in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and called one of the area's fastest growing companies in 2003 by

Deloitte & Touche Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

. In 2012, the TechnoCom Location Platform was rebranded as LocationSmart. On May 17, 2018, media outlets reported that the LocationSmart website allowed anyone to obtain the realtime location of any cell phone using any of the major U.S. wireless carriers (including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint), as well as some Canadian carriers, to within a few hundred yards, given only the phone number. Approximately 200 million customers may have been exposed. No consent was required, and there was no ability to opt-out. In addition, the data could be requested by anyone anonymously, with no

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicati ...

authorization Authorization or authorisation (see spelling differences) is the function of specifying access rights/privileges to resources, which is related to general information security and computer security, and to access control in particular. More for ...

, or payment required. Security researcher Robert Xiao, who discovered the vulnerability, stated that the LocationSmart

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

failed to implement basic checks and that the vulnerability could have been found by anyone with little effort. In response, LocationSmart took the vulnerable service offline and claimed the company "takes privacy seriously".

Clients

LocationSmart uses a variety of location methods that include cellular network location, Wi-Fi location, IP address location, landline location, hybrid location via a software development kit (SDK), browser location and global site identification (GSID) location. LocationSmart provides location services for enterprises and Fortune 500 companies. LocationSmart is also used by US states to offer online gaming within the state borders. LocationSmart is a member of CTIA, the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), and the

International Association of Privacy Professionals The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) is a nonprofit, non-advocacy membership association founded in 2000. It provides a forum for privacy professionals to share best practices, track trends, advance privacy management is ...

(IAPP).

References

{{Reflist

External links

www.locationsmart.com
Companies based in San Diego County, California Companies based in Carlsbad, California Internet geolocation Location-based software Mobile technology companies Wireless locating

History

Clients

See also

References

External links