Lovegety was a proximity matchmaking device introduced in Feb. 1998 in Japan by Erfolg Co.,ltd., which allowed users to find potential dates that match their personal preferences in the vicinity. Over 1,300,000 of these units were sold in Japan at an approximate price of $21. Howard Rheingold reflects on technologies such as the Lovegety in his work and urges that as consumers we think carefully about the social implications of these technologies. Rheingold states that ‘loss of privacy is perhaps the most obvious shadow side of technological cooperation systems’.