GPS-Based Mobile Ads: Where Does Privacy Fit?

Just as in real estate, the mobile world is increasingly realizing the value of location, location, location.

But while the housing market wrestles with woes stemming from the subprime mortgage implosion, vendors of location-based services (LBS) for messaging, marketing and advertising are struggling to overcome their own obstacles.

Chief among these is consumer privacy in a highly connected and always-available mobile environment. Wireless carriers already know, more or less, where their subscribers are. Now advertisers are getting the tools to easily piece together a profile based on mobile Web surfing and online activities from increasingly powerful Web-based phones. Not surprisingly, many consumers aren't thrilled at the prospect.

"Most people surveyed view mobile advertising as creepy," said M.J. Nash, chief strategy officer at LBS applications developer WanderSmart. In Japan, for example, a large number of people consider onboard GPS technology and tools as downright invasive, she said yesterday while speaking on a panel discussion here at Mobile Internet World in Boston.