Confirming other data in the market, an online poll conducted by StreetFight found just over 50% of consumers would exchange location for access to substantial discounts and deals.
According to the results (n=1,000), StreetFight “found that 50.7 percent would consent to a smartphone app that followed their every move if they were to receive half off of all store purchases; 61% of the survey respondents were women.”
This is consistent with earlier consumer surveys. For example, in Q2 last year JiWire reported that just over half of online survey respondents were “willing to share location on mobile devices for more relevant content.”
The willingness to share location was fairly consistent across age groups in the JiWire survey, whereas the StreetFight poll found it skewed younger:
In May of this year Nielsen reported that a majority of its survey respondents were concerned about location sharing and privacy:
[P]rivacy continues to be a concern with the vast majority (70% in 2011 and 73% in 2012) expressing concern over personal data collection and 55 percent wary of sharing information about their location via smartphone apps.
What these data collectively indicate is that when people are asked in the abstract about location tracking they don’t like it and express concern about privacy issues. However when presented with a concrete benefit (i.e., relevant ads, deals) they’re much more likely to express a willingness to share location.
