Should Companies Monitor our Locations for Advertisements?

 In an article by AdAge, the use of location services being monitored has posed positive changes for businesses. Due to COVID-19, the use of location services has provided businesses with the ability to track what their consumers were engaging in throughout their time spent in quarantine. Online shopping, binge watching shows/movies, and data collection of COVID hotspots all utilize locations to provide users with personalized suggestions or alerts. This can be seen through Netflix providing users with notifications that read “These are the top 50 most watched titles in your area” or the iPhone’s COVID-19 Exposure tracking service. The article argues that in a post-COVID world, the use of ones physical location is a valuable source of data that could help translate former pandemic related information into retail sales. Customer data is a main necessity to companies being able to cater to its audience. As the pandemic begins to slowly bring people off their devices and away from their homes, companies are looking at ways in which they can continue to collect user data to boost sales. While this article encourages the use of customer data, in particular location data, I question whether consumers would appreciate their locations being used as a way to advertise and cater to them. The data collected by companies during the pandemic were most definitely in massive amounts. More and more people were downloading apps like Netflix, Hulu, DisneyPlus, and Tik Tok. People mindlessly downloaded these apps to distract themselves from the boredom they were experiencing during quarantine. Privacy policies were very likely not their top concern upon downloading but now that the world is somewhat returning back to normal, individuals may not see the point in granting companies their personal data for advertising. Along with that, consumer behaviors will not remain the same once the world allows more in person activity. The activities people once engaged in will not be the same forever. When it comes to locations, due to health safety reasons, people were more inclined to enable their phones and apps to collect their info to be alerted of any possible virus exposure. With less and less individuals being concerned with contract tracing, the idea of companies utilizing location services, especially as people are not staying in one location may be deemed as invasive. While I understand the crucial and effective need to track locations for public health, I don’t see the point in retail companies or brands having insight to consumers locations. The article describes the use of location for companies such as Home Depot and Lowes beneficial. Location services for these companies were at one point useful during the height of the pandemic where everyone was home and purchasing home maintenance products. While these companies thrived in the pandemic, there is no guarantee that collecting location data throughout the span of the companies life will provide it with heightened sales year round. 

SOURCE: https://adage.com/article/where-series/how-brands-must-rethink-location-data-post-pandemic-world/2325656