Facebook says it’s working on a location-based mobile-advertising product that will allow companies to target users with real-time data showing their whereabouts.

"Currently, mobile advertising appears in the form of stories in a news feed, where users also find updates from friends like new pictures or relationship status. "

Thoughts?

I think it's a brilliant idea: Mobile Sponsored Stories.

Now with geo-location!

It's still in the experimental stage, but I'm guessing Apple, Google, and Twitter are also experimenting heavily with this.

Ah! I knew that was stashed here, somewhere... Thanks for linking to that.

I think we are about to start crossing a "freaky line" in the mobile space. All of the personal data these guys have been collecting on you, coupled with your geo-location, and potentially the context of that location. For example, are you buying a cup of coffee, right now?

Things are about to get interesting...

Things are especially interesting since Facebook and Google have been testing what they can get away with privacy-wise for several years.

Usually they settle out of court for an amount of money that means nothing to them.

So they're incentivized to keep pushing the envelope further.

At least Apple, Microsoft, and Twitter seem much more motivated to respect the privacies of their customers. Their brands depend more on them being squeaky-clean, and they can employ that as a differentiator.