The legal aspects of a location-based mobile advertising platform

Recent advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as the increasing accuracy of Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) technology and the miniaturisation of wireless communication devices, pave the road for Location-Based Services (LBSs). Among these services, m-advertising is predicted to represent a high-yield revenue stream. In this article, the possibilities of using a Location-Aware Mobile Messenger (LAMM) for the purpose of m-advertising is introduced. To avoid m-advertising becoming an extremely intrusive practice by neglecting the user's privacy, the objective of this article is to introduce a location-based advertising platform which complies with the provisions imposed by European Union (EU) law with regard to personal data protection.