Fifty-eight percent of consumers who have a smart device use location-based applications, despite concerns about safety and third-party use of their personal information for marketing purposes, according to a recent survey from nonprofit global information security association ISACA.
A telephone poll of 1,000 people shows that many have concerns or incomplete information about geolocation, which uses data acquired from a computer or mobile device to identify a physical location:
"Like any other kind of information-sharing, location-based apps can be tremendously convenient but also risky. Knowledge is power. People should educate themselves so they can understand how their data is being used or know how to disable this feature," said Marios Damianides, CISM, CISA, CA, CPA, past international president of ISACA and partner, Advisory Services, at Ernst & Young. "Businesses that collect location-based data have a responsibility, too. They need to define an ethical governance policy and communicate it transparently."
Applications with geolocation capabilities typically offer benefits such as precise navigation, location-based discount coupons or easy information sharing through features like social check-ins. Close to one-third (32%) of consumers in ISACA’s survey use location-based apps more than they did a year ago.
Most Popular Uses of Location-based Apps
The location-based activities most frequently done on a smartphone, tablet or laptop are getting directions via applications using the respondent’s current location (59%), and tagging photos on social media, dating or photo-sharing sites such as Facebook or instagram (44%). Interestingly, the next most popular activity is disabling location-based features on select apps and services (38%). According to the ISACA white paper "Geolocation: Risk, Issues and Strategies," malicious use of geolocation data can put both an individual and an enterprise at risk when personal information like gender, race, occupation and financial history are combined with information from a GPS and geolocation tags.
Geolocation is becoming a real source of commercial and financial benefit for organisations, but unfortunately, as with any technology that becomes popular, it is also becoming more interesting for hackers, scammers and spammers," said Marc Vael, Ph.D., CISA, CISM, CGEIT, director of ISACA and chair of the ISACA Knowledge Board. "This survey is a reminder to pursue an ‘embrace and educate’ approach to geolocation—embrace the benefits the technology brings, while first educating yourself or your enterprise about the potential risk."
Published: Wednesday, May 9, 2012
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