A new US study by Mobext (the mobile marketing arm of Havas Digital) and consumer research firm Cadio clearly demonstrates the potential and the privacy issues when you start mining GPS-equipped mobile data:

People who shop at Whole Foods are twice as likely to work out as those who shopped elsewhere, according to the study (reported by MediaPost). An obvious application of this insight would be for Whole Foods Market to create co-marketing programs with gyms or yoga studios to increase acquisition rates.

Among other findings of the study, Wal-Mart shoppers were 60% more likely to dine out than Target customers. Of the Target shoppers who ate out, about 25% went to a restaurant before going to one of its stores and another 25% afterward. The retail chains could use that data to offer more dining options than just snack foods or cross-market with nearby restaurants.

The research also shed light on the clash of the two coffee giants — Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. It found that half of Starbucks visitors also went to Dunkin’ Donuts. But among people who went to Dunkin’ Donuts, there was a 67% chance they would also go to Starbucks — suggesting that people preferred Starbucks coffee to Dunkin’ Donuts.

What’s among the biggest hurdles to mining this wealth of behavioural data via mobile tracking? Getting people to opt in to being electronically trailed wherever they go. The creepiness factor is hard to overcome.

Not to mention legislators’ concerns ….

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1. Mobile Internet Usage Trends At the end of last month Openwave Systems published a...
2. Mobile Internet: The Next Big Thing Every year at the Web 2.0 Summit, Morgan Stanley Internet...

Tags: concerns, Mobile, privacy, tracking