All new cell phones can track a person's geographic location. Government regulators required the features as a safety measure to help authorities find individuals in the case of an emergency.
Such capabilities have caught the eye of marketers and corporations, many of whom have started to build location-based applications for the iPhone and other devices.
Marketers are particularly excited about being able to target ads at particular consumers based on their geographic location.
Privacy advocates question whether consumers fully understand how their data could be used. The typical iPhone app simply asks users whether it can "use your current location." It doesn't explain in detail how that information will be used.
Many consumers assume the information will be used by that program just to, say, determine the closest Starbucks. But privacy advocates note that there's little to limit a marketer to just that. There are few rules for what marketers can do with location data they collect.
Location data collection has obvious implications for personal security. With access to that kind of information, a stalker could easily track down a potential victim and criminals could know precisely when to break into people's homes.
Automated summary from: Mercury News
