Mobile app’s tracking your location — when enough is enough

A March 25, 2015 Wired article “Apps Snoop on Your Location Way More Than You Think” struck my attention.

IT’S LITTLE SURPRISE that mobile apps regularly access our location data. In many cases, it’s a sensible deal. Maps, weather apps, social networks, and shopping services serve up useful info based on where we are. But while everyone understands the intrinsic privacy trade-off, few may realize just how often apps ping their location. According to a Carnegie Mellon study, it happens thousands of times a week.

Other than navigation app’s, the question is whether the frequency of “location harvesting” is justified — reasonable need versus feeding aggressive ad networks. However licensed, not all app’s treat privacy concerns and transparency the same. Free app’s, as you’d expect, pose the most risk.