Amid Privacy Regulations, Location Data Is in the Spotlight

“Would you like to share your location?” The question is a pesky roadblock for people looking to buy groceries, get to work or date using their phones. But the answer is of great value for advertisers, helping them pinpoint potential customers and learn more about existing ones. Location data—metrics of where people go all day—is one of the most controversial signals advertisers collect, as user privacy comes under increased scrutiny from tech companies and regulators. These risks came into focus last week when Vice found that, for around $160, it could purchase data from location data company SafeGraph about visits to abortion clinics—and that this data can potentially be deanonymized. The investigation came out at the same time as a draft opinion from the Supreme Court was leaked, indicating that the court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer, removing the federal right to abortion. Many states have already rolled back protections. In some states like Texas, the law encourages people to turn in those "aiding and abetting" illegal abortions, a process that could be powered by SafeGraph’s data, as well as other platforms. In response, SafeGraph—which declined to comment on the record for this article—said it was stopping the sale of family planning center data. But location data remains a key currency of digital advertising, six industry sources told Adweek. As brands try to locate users, sensitive information can leak into the web, to be found by domestic abusers, vigilantes and others we’d like not to know our whereabouts. Problems Persist With Google’s Privacy Sandbox Proposals as Trials Open The changing privacy landscape—and how brands track us—may alter the role of location data in digital advertising. “[Location data] remains very valuable; it captures people’s actual behavior in the world,” said location intelligence expert, Greg Sterling, who co-founded a local marketing newsletter called Near Media. “The question that has arisen now is user consent and control over that data.” Where location data comes from Advertisers find the data they use to target audiences from a multitude of sources. Sometimes, that data comes from what publishers have gleaned from their audiences. But location data often is third-party data, said Ana Milicevic, co-founder of digital advertising consultancy Sparrow Advisors. “To have your own location data, you have to have pretty persistent interaction with the user,” she said. “There are very few direct publishers that can command this attention [so] most of location data is aggregated by specialists.” Third-party data, by adding an extra layer between the consumer and the advertiser, make user consent murkier. Location data brokers often buy data from mobile app developers, hopefully, after a user has granted consent (though this permission can be buried in complex terms and conditions), according to several sources. The laws regulating the sale of this data aren’t always clear, though it is generally considered more acceptable when data collection benefits the user of the app, sources said. To give up your data to access free mapping services may be a fair trade, said Milicevic; allowing a flashlight app know your location is not, as one app developer found after settling with the FTC. Tech giants like Facebook and Google are also major sources of location data—though, as walled gardens, access is much harder than a self-serve platform like SafeGraph. But that doesn’t mean they’re impenetrable. “Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are permissioned to track all of their users’ locations all the time,” said Adam Heimlich, co-founder of ad tech company Chalice. “The giants don’t grant options and will give up your location data if it’s subpoenaed.” The advertiser use case Advertisers can use third-party location data when targeting ads programmatically, often as an integration option at many demand-side platforms, Milicevic said. Another key use case is tagging ads to later see who visited a store, a measure of an ad’s effectiveness, said an ad tech executive who requested anonymity to protect industry relationships. Location data is also powerful for building audiences. For example, a restaurant might build an audience of its visitors—those who live nearby and those who have visited similar restaurants, said privacy researcher Zach Edwards. When you buy it, you don’t know if it’s old. This is making big tech’s location data more powerful.Adam Heimlich, co-founder of ad tech company Chalice In an era of cookie deprecation, the value of location data companies will increase. However, amid privacy regulations, there have been fewer location data signals in the bid stream in recent years. Place data aggregators may not be impervious to this loss of signals, Heimlich said. “The crackdown on permissions means all the independents’ location data is getting more limited," he said. "When you buy it, you don’t know if it’s old. This is making big tech’s location data more powerful.” Is it worth the risk? Location data is only as powerful as it is accurate. Because it often comes as third-party data scraped from other sources, its quality is often poor. “Using location data as a substitute for transactional data is widespread in the ecosystem,” the ad tech executive said, noting that someone’s presence in a store is a less powerful data signal than whether they purchased an item. “We aren’t big users of [that] sort of data. It’s not the bottom line.” Given the opaqueness of the programmatic ecosystem, advertisers don’t often audit whether this sensitive data actually makes their campaigns more effective, said Nandini Jammi, co-founder of ad tech watchdog Check My Ads Institute. That action is effectively stalking people without their consent.Nandini Jammi, co-founder of Check My Ads Institute Meanwhile, headlines are piling up about the risks of widespread access to users’ location data, implicating the advertisers who use it. “There is a brand safety risk that didn’t used to exist,” Sterling said. Advertisers must weigh whether location data, the quality of which may be further diminished amid more regulation, is worth the risk both to their reputations and society, Jammi said. “Is that a way to build trust with your audience?” she asked, adding, “Neither the advertiser nor consumers really understand that action being taken, and that action is effectively stalking people without their consent.” Navigating Your Way Through the Pandemic With Location Data

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Still a Valuable Currency of Advertising, Location Data Is Under the Microscope

Privacy, accuracy put location data into focus

Catherine Perloff

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Catherine Perloff