RIM Brings GPS-Based Security Settings For Blackberry

How many of you religiously switch your mobile phones to ‘silence’ mode when you approach your office and take it off ‘silence’ after work? If a recently published patent is to be believed, RIM could be automatically doing it for you.

In the patent, the inventors distinctly talk about security settings; mainly setting shorter timer for mobile locking and requiring you to type longer passwords in less secure areas and slacking off in more secure areas.

“determining a security setting associated with the determined location, wherein the security setting is a home security setting when the mobile electronic device is within a predetermined proximity of a user’s home as determined by a predetermined home location, a work security setting when the mobile electronic device is within a predetermined proximity of a user’s work as determined by a predetermined work location, and an other location security setting when the mobile electronic device is not within a predetermined proximity of the home location or the work location; and automatically applying the determined security setting on the mobile electronic device.”

Though this patent is mainly about security features, it is however likely that this technology is also extended to other profile level functions like changing the ringtones. What do you think?