Patent ID: 7561888

Claim:
A method for bounding a location of a mobile communications device, the method comprising: transmitting a query to a server, the query including a location range encompassing the location of the mobile communication device and being sufficiently broad to make locating the mobile communication device impractical, wherein the location range is comprised of one of a first latitude and a second latitude, a first latitude and a latitude range, a first longitude and a second longitude, or a first longitude and a longitude range such that a detailed location of the mobile communication device is not disclosed; receiving from the server a group of polygons defined on the earth's surface that traverse the location range; and determining a first polygon in the group of polygons that includes the mobile communications device, the first polygon having edges; wherein said determining a first polygon comprises extending a latitudinal line in one direction over a longitude not exceeding a predetermined range, counting a number of intersections of the latitudinal line with the edges of the first polygon, and determining that the first polygon contains the mobile communications device when the number of intersections is odd.