Sydney: Your smartphone could soon give out your location no matter where you where, when you are.
Mobile phones are quickly becoming the up-close-and-personal marketing medium. And the possibility of knowing a person’s location at any given time through the websites they surf or mobile applications they have visited on their Smartphone’s browser is opening a new world of possibilities for marketers.
Both Google and Facebook have launched services that broadcast your location to friends - Latitude and Places respectively.
They even have plans to allow participating retail outlets, restaurants and cafes to offer special deals to Facebook users who ``check in`` with them.
“ Location will be one of the cornerstones of mobile advertising. Merging local businesses with mobile [advertising] is very, very important for us,” ta daily quoted Michael Slinger, director of mobile advertising at Google, as saying.
Graham Christie, the commercial director of the mobile marketing agency Big Mobile, says people should be pleased rather than perturbed at the prospect.
Simply because this pinpoint targeting will avoid bad and irrelevant advertising.
“We can give people more of what they want, when they want it and less of what they don’t want. It takes the guesswork out of a lot of advertising,” he said.
One such kind of advertising – behavioural targeting – is already practised on the Internet.
The user`s identity is never revealed and the segments of consumers are sold to advertisers who match their needs with their marketing messages.
Jamie Conyngham, a mobile apps developer, says, ‘‘if you can get very specific about their tastes you can really tailor discounts to them or up-sell them something, or work out what it is that they might want that they didn’t know they needed yet.``
``If you look at the internet and mobile phones, it’s really only the simple things that work. When Amazon reduced the number of clicks it took to buy a book or a DVD, they saw their business grow. Mobile needs to be even easier than that,” he added.
Privacy experts such as Colin Jacobs of Electronic Frontiers Australia say, inevitably, people will compromise their privacy.
“It wouldn`t take long to work out where you are and where you live. I`m not suggesting that someone is going to fire a missile at your house but finding out where you live is very sensitive information to be handled by third parties. I think we’d better get used to living in an age of less privacy,” he said.
ANI
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookies Setting
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device and the processing of information obtained via those cookies (including about your preferences, device and online activity) by us and our commercial partners to enhance site navigation, personalise ads, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. More information can be found in our Cookies and Privacy Policy. You can amend your cookie settings to reject non-essential cookies by clicking Cookie Settings below.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work or you may not be able to login.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we may not know when you have visited our site, and may not be able to monitor its performance.