Patent ID: 7231218

Claim:
A method for monitoring a location of a wireless unit of interest across multiple wireless networks, comprising the steps of: providing a system operative to procure location information for a wireless unit of interest from any of multiple location information sources associated with any of multiple wireless networks; establishing an interface for communications between said system and an entity requesting location information for said wireless unit of interest, wherein said interface defines a standardized format for requesting and providing said location information; verifying authorization for said entity to obtain location information for said wireless unit of interest independent of location finding preferences of said wireless unit of interest; obtaining, from said system, location information for said wireless unit of interest when said wireless unit of interest is within any of multiple location zones covered by at least one of the multiple wireless networks, the obtaining including overriding a privacy setting associated with said wireless unit of interest where necessary to obtain the location information; analyzing the location information to monitor a location of the wireless unit over time; and providing said monitored location information to a recipient associated with said request, wherein said establishing step allows a requesting entity to define at least one trigger event for triggering the monitoring of the location of the wireless unit of interest, the trigger event including at least one of a schedule, said wireless unit one of sending and receiving wireless communications, and said wireless unit being identified relative to an area of interest, and wherein said establishing step further allows a requesting entity to define at least one said area of interest, when used as a trigger event, including at least one of an address, a point and radius, another wireless unit, and a geographic boundary.