Are We Living In a World Full of Lies? - Can We Trust Assisted GPS Technology to Provide Accurate Data When Using Location Based Services?

Assisted GPS technology is at the cutting edge of most location based services on mobile devices; they are quickly changing and constantly advancing, permitting the arrangement of new services. Be it on a phone or satnav, this intricacy of new administrations allows for new encounters, which includes the capacity to track and explore, the location tagging of photos and mapping other aspects of the users lives and activities. In this manner, these improvements have presented a wealth of issues around the veracity of this data. A fundamental assumption is made when such data is used that the reported locations are accurate within the usual GPS limitations of approximately 10m.In any case, as a consequence of an extensive range of technical issues, all things considered the accuracy of the reported location is profound. At times the location can be accurate, yet many are exceedingly inaccurate and this can influence big decisions that are being made using this highly variable data. As a case of the use of location data, some criminal prosecutions have relied on the location of an individual’s mobile devices to determine if they were at the location of a crime.An experiment is conducted based on some 400 sets of GPS coordinates collected at accurately known locations (based on use of Google Maps), using an iPhone 5S and a Nexus 6, taking into account number of satellites, indoor/outdoor and environment type.An analysis of a set of data will be presented that demonstrates that this assumption is flawed and will provide examples of the levels of inaccuracy that has significant consequences in a range of contexts. The paper will demonstrate the quality and veracity of the data and the scale of the errors that can be present using Base SAS. This analysis has critical significance in fields such as mobile location based marketing, forensics and law. By drawing conclusions from these findings, recommendations will be made to assist end users and service providers