Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

The ability of a retailer to know precisely where any mobile-phone-using consumer is at any given moment—coldly dubbed geolocation—has always been a delicate and dangerous issue, with perceived privacy problems never straying far from the conversation. But what happens when the nature of the service requires that the retailer or service provider know the exact location of the consumer?

In those mandatory situations, who owns that data? Given that there are no laws or even strict guidelines today about such capabilities, what's to stop a retailer from using the data for one legally mandated purpose—such as collecting state taxes—and then using it for an unrelated purpose, such as marketing or sales? Let's look at a few non-intuitive examples: Live streaming of a blacked-out sporting event, selling age-restricted content, export restrictions, state taxes and an insurance company monitoring driving speed.

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