The rise in precision of geo-location features on smartphones and mobile devices can have enormous advantages for you as a consumer—as well as extremely dangerous consequences. So just how does your smartphone know where in the world you are? When location services are enabled on devices, the precise physical location of your phone (and you, assuming you are chained to it) can be pinpointed via latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates down to a matter of feet.

As a user, this can be great for you if you are dying for a Starbucks in the middle of Manhattan, lost in a new city trying to get to a job interview, or wondering why in the world your kid isn’t home at curfew. And as a business, you can take advantage of geo-location with geo-targeting—knowing your customers’ locations and serving them selected offers based on their proximity to your business.

However, there is a darker side. When GPS or geo-location is enabled on your devices, it may embed the exact location you were when you took photos with your smartphone or mobile device.

But do you realize that any time you take a picture with a mobile device that has GPS or geo-location enabled, your photo provides a roadmap to tell strangers where and when that photo was taken? And where you were not. There’s myriad software and websites available today that allow you to take a photo you have downloaded from the Internet and run it through a program to determine hidden details. 

Pedro Pérez is a founding partner of Nuevo Advertising Group and an adjunct professor of Global Brand Strategies at Ringling College of Art and Design. For over 17 years Pedro has offered clients his knowledge and expertise. Pedro has always demonstrated a keen analytical sense combined with a good dose of common sense in crafting digital and online marketing strategies as part of an integrated marketing plan.

Read more at Perez' blog at Nuevo Advertising