NTT DoCoMo, Twitter team on location-based smartphone alerts
updated 05:30 pm EDT, Thu May 12, 2011
Will roll out location-based alerting service
Twitter and NTT DoCoMo have signed an agreement by which Twitter will provide its databases to DoCoMo. The Japanese telecom will use the information for a location-based alerting service for smartphone users. The service will be rolled out early next year. It will be available to DoCoMo smartphone customers only when released.
Twitter will purge the data of any information that could be used to identify individual users.
There are approximately 17.8 million Twitter users in Japan. During the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster, Twitter was an invaluable source of information for victims trying to find hospitals and shelters as well as keeping people within Japan and around the world up to date with current information. [via Reuters]
