Geofence

Not to be confused with Geo-blocking.

A geofence is a virtual "perimeter" or "fence" around a given geographic feature. A geofence can be dynamically generated (as in a radius around a point location) or match a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighborhood boundaries).

The use of a geofence is called geofencing, and one example of use involves a location-aware device of a location-based service (LBS) user entering or exiting a geofence. This method combines awareness of the user's current location with awareness of the user's proximity to locations that may be of interest. This activity could trigger an alert to the device's user as well as messaging to the geofence operator. This info, which could contain vehicle location data, could be sent to a mobile telephone or an email account.

Geofencing is a critical technology in many fields. In fleet management, it is used to automate timekeeping at job sites and to alert managers of unauthorized vehicle use. It is also used in marketing, smart home automation, and public transport information systems. However, the technology has also raised significant privacy concerns, particularly regarding its use by law enforcement to issue geofence warrants to collect data on all individuals within a specific area.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.