BREAKING: inneractive Does NOT Collect Location Data

OK, that title is somewhat of a joke, but what seems to be the trend in the mobile space over the last few months is that everyone is collecting location data without the user’s consent. First there was of course Apple and the iPhone/iPad 3G collecting data. After studying the issue closely, it seems that while there is some sort of minor bug in the current version of iOS, this story was somewhat overplayed.

Of course, being that it is Apple we’re talking about, it is no surprise that such a huge deal was made of the story. After all, if everything that was said about Apple was true, the iPhone 4, Apple’s most popular mobile device to date, would be the only phone in history that had 18m sold and does not make phone calls.

What seems to have really happened, is that the iPhone does indeed collect location data, but so does every other phone. The only real difference here is that the data was then transfered to the user’s computer upon sync. That can be problematic if the someone hacks into that user’s computer. Now, stop to think about that for a second. If someone is hacking into your computer, what exactly are they going to do with information about where you have been in the past?

This data does not show anything about where you are now, but where you have been. Additionally, if someone was after private data, they would most likely find much compromising information on a personal computer than this specific database generated by iPhone. Having said that, Apple has addressed the issue and promised to fix it in the next version of iOS due out in the next few weeks. More on that issue here…

There are of course many other stories surfacing on the Web about privacy breaches and almost no company out there is completely in the clear. However, the latest story is a little closer to home for us… Google’s Admob offices were officially raided by South Korean police yesterday after the company was suspected of collecting users’ location data illegally.

Google has confirmed the raid and said it intends on cooperating with the investigation. ”We suspect AdMob collected personal location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission,” a South Korean police official said.

So why would Admob (allegedly) collect location data about its users?  Well, as you probably know by now, in mobile advertising, the ability to target users is much greater than in traditional marketing since mobile phones are generally always with the user. In addition to targeting users based on content (type of app or declared interests), a common and effective method of increasing user engagement is by targeting the user by their location.

Of course, location based services are nothing new and we have had GPS for years, but with services like Foursquare and GoWalla, location has reached a whole new level. With the modern location capabilities of smartphones, mobile advertising companies can know where the user is and display ads accordingly. This is a big plus as far as the user is concerned since they are seeing highly relevant results, whether it be for a nearby restaurant or attraction.

However, this type of technology is of course serious business as far as privacy matters are concerned and it should be implemented with all possible types of precautionary measures. While inneractive is proud to be on the forefront of mobile advertising, and we do offer our developers the ability to target users by location, we do not at any point or in any way collect that user’s location data. Our mediation platform has integrated security measures that ensures that no such data is ever stored or collected in our database.

Among our core principles of ad mediation and optimization, privacy and security is at the top of our list and we take daily measures to ensure that it stays there…

Does this issue worry you or do you think the whole thing is exaggerated in the press?

Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.
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