Patent ID: 7657256

Claim:
A portable communication device for notifying a first user of the presence of another user, the portable communication device comprising: a position detector for determining a location of the portable communication device; a memory for storing a user alert program; a network interface for receiving information from a network, wherein the information includes location information indicative of a location of another portable communication device of another user; and a processor which, upon executing the group alert program, is configured to: determine whether the location of the another portable communication device is within a same region as the retrieved location; determine whether the first user has permission to locate the other user, wherein determining whether the first user has permission to locate the other user comprises: (i) determining whether the first user is in a group of a plurality of users, wherein the group is accessed from a data structure having the group stored thereon; and (ii) determining whether the group has predefined permission to locate the second user by accessing a permission setting that is selectively settable to a first setting permitting the location to be determined by the users of the group and a second setting restricting the location from being determined by the users of the group; if so, cause a notification message to be sent to the first user of a presence of the another user if the location of the another portable communication device is within a same region as the portable communication device and if the first user has permission to locate the other user; wherein the notification is automatically provided via the portable communication device on the basis of previous selections made by the first user of the portable communication device to be notified of the presence of the second user, wherein the previous selections specifically identify the second user according to an identification value unique to the second user stored in the portable device.