Location is one of the key components of modern marketing. But it’s also one of the most problematic, because it has huge potential for privacy violations.
Just this past week, it’s come to light that some telcos may be providing personal data including location to advertisers. A couple of months ago one of the larger weather apps, AccuWeather, was found to be transmitting location information to a data vendor, even when against people’s direct wishes.
So location-based mobile marketing can be tricky. It can be creepy. And, it can be illegal.
But it can also be incredibly useful. Try using Uber or Lyft without location sharing. Or Pokémon Go and other location-dependent games which rely on knowing where you are.