What Does Location Intelligence (Location Awareness) Mean?
Location intelligence, also known as location awareness, is the ability a technology has to provide other software applications with the geographical location of a specific computing device or person. This capability works by actively or passively determining the target's geographical coordinates in respect to a reference point.
Location is often determined by one of six methods:
- GPS satellite tracking
- Cellular tower triangulation
- A computing device's media access control (MAC) address
- Geofencing
- Sensor proximity limitations
- Security cameras
In business, an important goal of location intelligence is to help organizations use geospatial data to enhance customer experience management (CXM). On the internet, an important goal of location intelligence is to support a data-centric cybersecurity strategy called Zero Trust. Location intelligence also plays an important role in physical security and law enforcement.