Example Application:
Merchant Processing

Without Geocate:

A user (300) logs into an account on a merchants website and places an order. The credit card transactor (304) has no idea of the geographical location of the user and relies on former purchasing history. There is no way of telling if the user (300) is using a stolen credit card or stolen account information (from, for example a phishing scam or bogus email).

The user (400) places the order with the merchant (402) and subsequently with the Credit card transactor (406). When the order is placed, information about the network is sent to the Geocate service (410). The Credit card transactor requests the geographic location of the user from the Geocate service (the process is called Geocation) which can then be used as part of the authorization process. For example, if the user has a history of placing orders in 3 locations in California and the current order is from, say, Houston, the Transactor has the option to decline the transaction or take appropriate measures. Of course, the user might be in Houston. On the other hand, the user might not Knowing where the user is would, for example, alert the transactor that the account is being used in an impossible manner: i.e it’s unlikely that a user could place orders from Houston, New York and then LA in the space of 10 minutes.