I remember way back when I first heard about the GPS functionality coming to the iPhone, and other devices. “Oh man, if we can detect a user’s location, we can use it to send him/her all sorts of targeted messages.” For example, if we know he is near a Starbucks, maybe we send him a coupon for a cup of coffee. Genius! It seemed like we were on the verge of an amazing opportunity for marketers. However, when I began to think about within the context of pushing “ads” to a person’s mobile device, it quickly became clear that this would become a mess. Imagine walking down the street and getting bombarded with ads for every other store on the block – not cool. There are many useful ways of using this technology, but pushing location-based ads to people, without their consent, is not one of them.

During my recent speaking event at OMMA, I actually brought this up. I’ve also been discussing it with others in the industry. Great to hear that Apple is right on board with this thinking. They just released a warning to iPhone developers:

“If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.” 

Good stuff!