The Financial Times takes a look at "a new form of technology that allows mobile phone users to disguise their location using fake background sounds".
"Whenever he receives or places a call, a window pops up asking whether he would like a sound to play in the background during the call. There are nine sounds, ranging from the useful such as traffic or heavy machinery, to the more bucolic, such as birdsong or a thunderstorm.
"[Simedia founder] Liviu Tofan says that the application was originally written 'more for fun and as a technical challenege than anything else'.
"The company is well aware of the uses to which its products might be put. 'Certainly,' says Mr Tofan, 'people do use it to give plausibility to their excuses - both for work and in relationships'."
Comment: The software, available only for Nokia phones at the moment, seems to have brought us to a new juncture in our attempts to evade the constant stream of communications: the process of avoiding the truth is becoming more complicated every day.
What's next? Fake backgrounds for video calling?
