Patent ID: 7392042

Claim:
A method for notifying a first user of a portable communication device, the method comprising: determining whether a location of a second portable communication device is within a same region as a first portable communication device; notifying, with a first notification message, the first user of the first portable communication device of a presence of a second user of the second portable communication device if the location of the second portable communication device is within the same region as the first portable communication device, wherein the notification is automatically provided via the first portable communication device on the basis of previous selections made by the first user of the first 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 first portable communication device; determining whether a location of a third portable communication device is within a same region as a first portable communication device; determining whether the first user has permission to locate a third user of the third portable communication device, wherein determining whether the first user has permission to locate the third 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 third 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; and upon determining that the first user has permission to locate the third user, notifying, with a second notification message, the first user of the location of the third portable communication device.