LOOK NO FURTHER THAN LOOK 4ME!

Vodacom's superb tracking service, Vodacom Look 4 me help you track down a stolen cellphone (as well as missing kids or partners!). Here's how.

Vodacom launched Africa's first cellular service that allows cellphone tracking service, Vodacom Look 4 me, on 29 February.

Since then, more than 20 000 people have subscribed to the service, with more joining every day.

The success of this service can be ascribed to a combination of factors. The enormous effort and expense invested in ensuring that no person can be tracked without their specific consent and knowledge has ensured that South Africans don't feel any invasion of privacy. Concurrently, users of the service as finding numerous applications ranging from checking their children are at school, to making sure their spouses/parents are safely on the road home, to tracking their own cellphones when lost or stolen .

One particular subscriber obtained location rights for his daughter's cellphone just before she went to a party. During the party, the daughter's handbag was stolen with her cellphone inside. Naturally she was upset, and informed her father the next morning. He immediately initiated a search from his cellphone and received an SMS giving him the approximate address of one of his daughter's friends.

He then called police a drove to the house of the friend. The friend confessed to the theft, and the daughter's handbag was recovered!

In addition to the tracking functionally of Vodacom Look 4 me, subscribers can now also use Vodacom Look 4 help. By dialing the Vodacom Look 4 help code, *120*888*888#, you can send a personalised distress SMS with your location to a maximum of 4 other cell numbers.

Vodacom Look 4 me is giving all users, whether they are locating or being located, enhanced peace of mind and further emphasizing Vodacom's commitment to customer satisfaction .

To register for Vodacom Look 4 me simply SMS the word REGISTER to 31888.Once registered, you will be able to locate up to 10 other cell numbers , provided the users have consented to being located. Subscribers pay R10 per month for the service, and R1,69 per search.

You can also do searches from the website , www.look4me.co.za at 99c per search. The website also allows you to set up alerts whereby you can, as an example, receive an SMS if you child is not at school at 10am . For more information on Vodacom Look 4 me, Vodacom customers can go to www.look4me.co.za, or make a free call to Vodacom Customer Care on 111 from their cellphones.

The following safety controls have been built into Vodacom Look 4 me:

•  Before Vodacom Look 4 me passes your location information to any person, you must specifically register and grant, location rights by replying with a 'YES' SMS to the invitation message.

•  Vodacom Look 4 me will only pass your location information to the specific cell number which you have explicitly granted location rights to.

•  Only cell numbers to which you have granted location rights will be able to locate you.

•  After registering and granting location rights you will receive SMS reminders that you may be located, indicating how to cancel locating users should you wish to. These reminders will be timed as follows: one reminder 48 hrs after sending a consent SMS, one reminder every 30 days.

•  At any time you may view those cell numbers that you have granted location rights to either via your cellphone or the Internet

•  At any time you may view a report of the previous three months locations requests made for your cell number, either via your cellphone or the Internet.

•  At any time you may cancel or suspend the location rights of cell numbers that may locate you.

•  You may block your phone to new locators, i.e. block your child's phone once you have added your cell number as a locator, this will help ensure that only you may locate your child.

•  You can set the days and times during which you're locatable.

•  You can set the frequency of the SMS reminders sent to you.

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