MAPPED OUT

MOBILE LOCATION DATA EXPLAINED

OVERVIEW
LOCATION IS A CORE COMPONENT OF EVERYTHING WE DO AND MOBILE DEVICES ARE ALL LOCATION AWARE BY DEFAULT. LOCATION-AWARE
TECHNOLOGY INCLUDES SENSORS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING OR CALCULATING THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF A PERSON, A MOBILE
DEVICE, OR OTHER MOVING OBJECTS. THIS TECHNOLOGY DELIVERS THIS LOCATION INFORMATION TO OTHER USERS OR APPLICATIONS.
IF YOU USE AN ANDROID PHONE OR IOS DEVICE, YOURE ASKED EARLY IN THE SETUP PROCESS TO OPT IN TO GOOGLES LOCATION TRACKING.
IF YOU WANT TO OPT OUT, GO TO LOCATION; TAP GOOGLE LOCATION REPORTING. LOCATION HISTORY ALLOWS GOOGLE TO STORE A HISTORY
OF YOUR LOCATION DATA FROM DEVICES WHERE YOU ARE LOGGED INTO YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT AND HAVE ENABLED LOCATION REPORTING.
YOU CAN VIEW AND MANAGE YOUR LOCATION HISTORY AT HTTP://MAPS.GOOGLE.COM/LOCATIONHISTORY AND CAN TURN OFF LOCATION
HISTORY AT ANY POINT, BUT DOING SO WONT DELETE YOUR LOCATION HISTORY.

METHODS OF COLLECTING LOCATION DATA

IN ORDER FROM MOST RELIABLE TO LEAST RELIABLE - SOURCE: THINKNEAR BY TELENAV

PUSH NOTIFICATIONS ARE TURNED ON BY DEFAULT ON ANDROID

52% OF IOS PHONES ARE OPTED INTO NOTIFICATIONS

LOCATION DATA IS NOT CREATED EQUAL

BEACONS

A-GPS

ASSISTED GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL BEACONS ARE

INSTALLED AT A SITE AND COLLECT

GPS SATELLITES MAINTAIN A CONSTANT

DEVICEIDS WHILE CONSUMERS ARE IN CLOSE

ORBIT AROUND THE EARTH SENDING

PROXIMITY. DEVICEIDS ARE THEN UPLOADED

SIGNALS TO THE GROUND. THIS

TO A DSP. BRANDS ARE ABLE TO USE THIS

INFORMATION ALLOWS, UNDER

DETERMINISTIC DATA ON EXPOSURE TO

OPTIMAL CONDITIONS, A

ACTIVATION TO RETARGET A CONSUMER

SMARTPHONE TO CALCULATE

WITH DISPLAY AND/OR VIDEO ADS.

LOCATION WITHIN A FEW FEET.

A-GPS CAN BE A BATTERY DRAIN,

WIFI

SO DEVELOPERS CHOOSE OTHER

SOLUTIONS. ADDITIONALLY, WEATHER
AND BUILDING INTERFERENCE CAN

NEARLY ALL WI-FI CONNECTION POINTS HAVE

REDUCE EFFECTIVENESS.

BEEN MAPPED TO A LOCATION, SO DEPENDING

UPON THE AVAILABILITY OF WI-FI NETWORKS,
TRIANGULATION WITHIN 10 TO 100 METERS IS

CELL TOWERS

RELATIVELY EASY.
THE DOWNSIDE: USERS ARE NOT ALWAYS NEAR A NETWORK

OR THEY MAY SIMPLY HAVE TURNED OFF THEIR PHONES WI-FI.

CELL TOWERS ARE TYPICALLY THREE-SIDED WITH A

TRANSMITTER ON EACH SIDE. LOCATION ACCURACY TO
WITHIN OF A SQUARE MILE IS POSSIBLE WHEN THREE

IP

TOWERS ARE PRESENT AND THERE IS NO INTERFERENCE.

WHEN A USER HAS COVERAGE FROM A SINGLE CELL TOWER, OR EVEN

A DEVICES LOCATION CAN BE APPROXIMATED USING ITS IP ADDRESS AS

TWO TOWERS, THE LOCATION APPROXIMATION CAN RANGE OVER

ASSIGNED BY THE NETWORK OPERATOR; HOWEVER, IDENTIFYING THE TRUE

MANY MILES. BUILDING INTERFERENCE CAN ALSO REDUCE ACCURACY.

LOCATION OF THE USER USING STANDARD NETWORK TECHNIQUES IS ALMOST

UNIVERSALLY INACCURATE.

USER REGISTRATION

ITS TYPICAL PRACTICE FOR AN APP DEVELOPER TO ASK A USER TO SHARE

THEIR POSTAL CODE OR HOME CITY WHEN REGISTERING FOR AN APP. THE APP
DEVELOPER THEN PINPOINTS THE CENTER POINT OF THAT GEOGRAPHIC REGION.
REAL-TIME LOCATION DATA IS THEREFORE ALWAYS WRONG FOR THIS TYPE OF
LOCATION INFORMATION.

REGARDLESS OF THE SOURCE USED, LOCATION DATA IS TRANSLATED INTO LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE.

MOBILE LOCATION ANALYTICS

SOURCE: THE WIRELESS REGISTRY FOR THE FUTURE OF PRIVACY FORUM

ADOPTED BY 11 MOBILE LOCATION ANALYTICS FIRMS SUCH AS AISLELABS, EUCLID AND PATH INTELLIGENCE, FACILITIES SUCH AS AIRPORTS,
STORES AND HOTELS USE MOBILE LOCATION ANALYTICS (MLA) TECHNOLOGY TO UNDERSTAND THE TRAFFIC PATTERNS OF PEOPLE IN
THEIR VENUES. BY LEARNING AND USING INSIGHTS, SUCH AS HOW LONG CUSTOMERS STAND IN LINE AND HOW THEY GENERALLY MOVE
AROUND AN AREA, THESE FACILITIES CAN ENHANCE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY AND IMPROVE USER EXPERIENCE.

LOCATION DATA
SOURCE: NINTHDECIMAL; FOURSQUARE

1ST
PARTY

DATA SOURCED FROM OWNED

DATA SOURCED FROM THIRD PARTY BUSINESS INFORMATION,

AND OPERATED PROPERTIES ON

U.S. PARCEL DATA, MAPPING APIS SUCH AS GOOGLE, AND

3RD
PARTY

THE WEB, PUBLISHED APPS ON

MULTIPLE OPERATING SYSTEMS,
AND FROM PARTNERSHIPS WITH
APPLICATIONS AND MOBILE

CUSTOM DRAWN BOUNDARIES. PARTNERS UTILIZE LAT/LONG

DATA GENERATED BY MOBILE DEVICES (COMBINATION OF DEVICE
GPS, WIFI SIGNALS, CELL TOWER TRIANGULATION, IP ADDRESSES,
ETC.) ENCOMPASSES ALL ASPECTS OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD -

EXCHANGES.

BUSINESSES, RESIDENCES, PUBLIC PARKS, POINTS OF INTEREST,

ETC.

SOCIAL SIGNALS FRIENDS

ACTIVITY AT A PLACE, TIME OF

ASSURED ACCURACY BY USING A MULTI-GEOCODING PROCESS

DAY, PROXIMITY TO A VENUE,

TO LAYER MULTIPLE SOURCES OF PLACE DATA (LOCATION

PERSONAL ACTIVITY AT A

DATABASES AND MAPPING SYSTEMS) TO CORRECT ERRORS,

SPECIFIED LOCATION, WHETHER

PROVIDING CORRECT MAPPING OF LAT/LONG TO PHYSICAL WORLD

OR NOT THAT PLACE IS OPEN OR

CONTEXT.

CLOSED AT THE TIME, AND THE

OVERALL PROCLIVITY TO MATCH

PARTNERS ALSO USE TILES, POLYGONS, OR GEO-FENCES TO

THE PLACE TO THE NEEDS AND

AGGREGATE LOCATION DATA. THEY ALSO UTILIZE OPTIMIZATION

OBJECTIVES OF THE CAMPAIGN AT

STRATEGIES TO INDEX THE LOCATIONS THAT ARE DRIVING

HAND.

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT.

MOBILE LOCATION ACCURACY

SOURCE: THINKNEAR BY TELENAV

ACCURATE LOCATION DATA:

THE AUDIENCE YOU WANT
FOR EXAMPLE, ON-THE-GO MOM LOOKING FOR A QUICK PLACE TO GRAB COFFEE
HIGHER ENGAGEMENT
YOUR AD IS RELEVANT TO WHERE THE CUSTOMER IS RIGHT NOW
BETTER VALUE EXCHANGE
GIVE THE USER AN AD THAT PROVIDES VALUE WITH LOCAL CONTENT SUCH AS
ENTERTAINMENT, RECOMMENDATIONS, OR DIRECTIONS TO NEARBY STORE LOCATIONS

WHY USE LOCATION DATA?

SOURCE: THINKWITHGOOGLE.COM; VERVEMOBILE

RETAILERS USING
LOCATION-POWERED
ADS SAW A 74% LIFT
IN FOOT TRAFFIC

94% LOOK FOR

LOCAL INFORMATION
ON THEIR
SMARTPHONE 90%
OF THOSE PEOPLE
TAKE ACTION AS A
RESULT

35% OF MOBILE
CONSUMERS MAKE
PURCHASES ON
THEIR SMARTPHONE

32% CHANGE THEIR

MINDS ABOUT
BUYING A PRODUCT
WHILE IN STORE
AS A RESULT OF
RESEARCHING ON
THEIR SMARTPHONE

RETAILERS USING
LOCATION-POWERED
ADS SAW A 56% LIFT
IN VISIT FREQUENCY

66% VISIT THE

BUSINESS, EITHER INSTORE OR ONLINE,
AFTER A LOCAL
SEARCH

LOCATION ADSERVING FLOW

SOURCE: JUICE MOBILE

1. A CONSUMER OPTS INTO SHARING LOCATION WHEN THEY

DOWNLOAD AN APP, AND HAS BROADER CONTROLS ON HOW
THEY MANAGE LOCATION SERVICES ON THEIR DEVICE

4. AN ADVERTISER BUILDS A GEO-FENCE WITH A CUSTOM RADIUS

AROUND A LOCATION OF INTEREST

2. THE LATITUDE/LONGITUDE AT THE TIME OF AN AD CALL PASSES

THE COORDINATES AND DEVICEID TO ADVERTISERS BIDDING ON
DISPLAY AND VIDEO IMPRESSIONS

5. AN AD IS SERVED TO A CONSUMER ONLY IF THEY ARE

CURRENTLY INSIDE THE GEO-FENCE (IN MARKET) OR WERE
RECENTLY INSIDE THE GEO-FENCE (HISTORICAL BEHAVIOR)

3. THE DATA PASSED IS ANONYMIZED AND CAN BE STORED FOR

FUTURE USE

IN APP VS. MOBILE WEB

HOW DO YOU USE THE MOBILE INTERNET ON YOUR SMARTPHONE?

37%
FAVOR APPS

30%
FAVOR
MOBILE WEB

33%
PREFER APPS
AND MOBILE
WEB EQUALLY