Privacy 101- Location, Location, Location

The real estate axiom of it’s all about location, location, location has taken on a new meaning in the second decade of the 21st century. Much of what this generation of the digital world is about is geolocation.

Geolocation, also called geotagging, is the practice of associating a digital resource with a precise physical location. Usually given in terms of geospatial metadata, most commonly longitude and latitude coordinates, this technology adds a layer of information to an object, like a picture, and additional ways for users to search, organize and correlate data. You most likely have used location-based technology at least once- either with a GPS in your car, wireless network on your laptop or with your mobile device (formerly known as a cell phone).

This technology has provided many benefits, particularly to urban users, in getting us to places without getting too lost, avoiding traffic jams as much as possible and being able to map a location in a photo you would like to visit.

Business applications abound as well. If you are using a mobile application like so many of us are, Internet marketers and service providers, like Internet television, are able to deliver us content based on our location such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, IP address, ISP or other criteria. This advancement has some beneficial uses like fraud prevention. An identity thief could be thwarted because suspicious payment transactions are identified in real time by correlations between an IP address and additional information (billing records, email header, etc.).

Many businesses, large and small are racing to offer services to let people report their physical location online. Why? So people can connect with friends or receive coupons. I was at lunch the other day and my companion downloaded a coupon to use as we stood at the register.