Verify Location Using Vonage’s Device Location Network APIs
Vonage's Device Location Network APIs let you obtain a user’s location via the mobile network. Vonage has a new set of Network APIs that allows you to obtain the end-user's location via cellular network positioning. This can open up use cases that help you prevent fraud, verify users’ location, check if a device is near a specified location, and more.
The Vonage Device Location Network APIs are available through a Virtual Operator simulated mode for now, and in the near future, we will start offering coverage in certain countries.
Here’s a practical example that illustrates how you can use these APIs and could open up practical solutions for real-life problems. In our scenario, we manage Power Metal concerts, particularly the ticketing side of the business.
Problem: We want to check if folks who purchased the ticket to attend a Finnish Power metal band concert in our venue attended it and if they stayed for the whole duration. Traditionally, the only information we have is checking who attended and sending a survey. But Network APIs let us confirm their actual behaviour.
More details: Our next concert takes place at a venue in Camden, London. The fictitious coordinates are:latitude: 51.5074 and longitude: -0.1278.
For this example, the concert venue area will have a radius of 500 meters. You can adjust the radius as a parameter based on your needs.
Typically, when you buy a ticket online, a phone number is required and associated with your purchase.
Solution: Consider the radius of the venue (e.g., 500 meters) to verify if people are inside the venue. A larger radius might be used for general proximity (e.g., the area surrounding the venue). While we could track the users' attendance via scanning the ticket ID, this allows us to monitor at different moments in time if they are still in the venue, potentially profiling if they enjoyed the whole act, or if they preferred to make a quick exit.
This could be even more useful when, during a concert, several bands are performing, and to understand which ones maintained the attendees’ interest.
Problem: The QR code can be shared with a user’s friend (sometimes illegally and/or on the secondary market), and a valid ID is not always required. But it’s much harder to share or fake your device location!
Solution: When the ticket’s QR code gets scanned, the system performs a location verification of the phone number associated with the purchase. If the verification result is not in the proximity of the venue location, we know that the person presenting the ticket is likely not the legitimate customer.
These use cases may have sparked an idea in you. That's great! You can start building now with the Virtual Operator on the Playground environment.
Note: Remember that mobile Operators require that end users have consented to share their location before allowing the location data to be obtained.
In addition to the Device Location APIs, other Vonage Network APIs can provide valuable capabilities to prevent fraud and improve the solution’s performance.
The SIM Swap API can determine if and when the SIM card linked to the phone number that was used to purchase the ticket has recently changed. This is particularly useful for identifying potential fraud attempts.
In the scenario showcased in this blog post, where many people are gathered in the same area, the connectivity may not always be reliable. The Quality on Demand API can be used to manage the ticket application's traffic to gain more consistent performance from the network.
Vonage’s Device Location Network APIs let you verify user location through the mobile network. It’s ideal for checking event attendance or preventing ticket fraud. Can you think of more relevant use cases?
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