Bits: Location Apps Generate Privacy Concerns, Report Says

 Nielsen The report by Nielsen found that women are more concerned with privacy and location than men.

A day after a report that the Apple iPhone and iPad 3G are storing data about users’ locations, a new report from the market research firm Nielsen said many Americans have strong concerns about losing some privacy by using location-based mobile services.

Authors of the report said that although some Americans happily engage with a new crop of location-based applications, many “are reticent to share information about their geographic location.”

Location-based services, including Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places, have seen heavy adoption in recent years as more?Americans?have moved from standard mobile phones to smartphones that come?with GPS.?But not everyone is persuaded of their benefits.

Nielsen said women who download at least one mobile application to their phone each month showed the highest concern about? location apps. The report says that 59 percent of women reported having privacy concerns with these services; 52 percent of men reported the same concerns. Only 8 percent of women and 12 percent of men were not concerned with location-based services and happily engage with them. The remaining people surveyed said they were indifferent.

Age also played a factor in the research. “Mobile app downloaders between the ages of 25-34 were the least likely to have privacy concerns,” Nielsen said. “Privacy concerns were considerably higher among those over the age of 45.”

The report, which was made public on Thursday, will be presented in full?at an app conference in San Francisco next week.