How Much Is Your Location Data Worth?

Direct answer: Detailed, timestamped location history is estimated to be worth roughly $5–$30 per profile per year to buyers — more valuable than basic demographics but less than financial or health data — because it reveals behavioral patterns like commute routes, workplace, and store visits that are useful for retail analytics, advertising, and increasingly restricted political targeting.

Why continuous location beats a single data point

A single location ping is nearly worthless; a continuous, months-long location history is valuable because it reveals patterns — your commute, your workplace, which stores you actually walk into versus just see ads for — that single data points can't show.

Who buys location data

Retail analytics firms use foot-traffic data to measure ad campaign effectiveness (did someone who saw an ad actually visit the store); hedge funds have reportedly used aggregated foot-traffic data to estimate retailer sales ahead of earnings reports; and political and advocacy organizations use location data for targeting.

Regulatory pushback in 2026

Oregon's privacy law now requires honoring universal opt-out signals and has moved to end all sales of geolocation data outright, part of a broader 2026 trend of states specifically singling out precise location as a category too sensitive for the standard data-broker resale model.

How to reduce your location data footprint

Limit background location access on a per-app basis, disable ad ID reset defaults, and check whether apps you use share location data with third-party SDKs embedded in the app — often a bigger source of leakage than the app's own first-party use.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my location data more valuable than my browsing history?

Generally yes on a per-profile basis, because continuous location history reveals real-world behavioral patterns that are harder to fake or obscure than browsing data, which can be affected by shared devices or browsers.

Why did Oregon ban the sale of geolocation data specifically?

Regulators increasingly view precise, continuous location history as uniquely sensitive because it can reveal home address, workplace, health visits, and other inferences beyond what the person intended to disclose.

Do all apps that request location access sell that data?

Not all, but many apps include third-party advertising SDKs that can access and share location data independently of the app's own stated purpose — reviewing an app's privacy disclosures is the only way to know for sure.