The value of geographic locations submitted by internet users

Abstract

Internet users may be asked to manually provide their contact details, including city or full postal address. Examples include use of trial/free applications and services, filling out on-line surveys and petitions, and membership registration to loyalty programs. Many users may provide their correct location, whereas others may submit inaccurate data. The provided locations are used for geo-analytical purposes, including the interpretation of survey results, online content personalization, and targeted marketing. In this paper, we analyze differences in user behavior when they provide their location. We work with two data sets of user-submitted locations. These data sets differ in how the locations were submitted: voluntary by purpose-aware users without being asked to or by requesting it from common Internet users. The locations from the purpose-aware users were about 2.5x more accurate than from the other users. We also present data for selected countries. The best result was found for the users in the USA with a median error of 44 km (the difference between the correct and user-submitted location). The results also show different user behavior that depends on the place from which they provide their location. The locations submitted from home were 1.5x more accurate than from the office.