Home » IP Geolocation » What is Geolocation Data Used For?
Geolocation data is a powerful asset that solves a wide array of challenges that businesses face today, including:
- The death of cookie-based tracking for marketing and advertising initiatives
- Revenue loss and fines due to violations of licensing and copyright agreements
- Fines and reputational risk from non-compliance with local regulations
- Cyber security threats, including data breaches
Let’s take a look at how geolocation software can be used to address some of today’s online challenges.
Geolocation Data and Marketing
Inherently privacy compliant, IP data is capable of driving strong performance for a variety of marketing initiatives, all while detecting and preventing click fraud and ensuring positive experiences for the user.
Target audiences by longitude/latitude, proxy data (e.g. masked IP data that can be used by fraudsters), home vs. business usage, company name and even carrier data. What’s more, because every device that’s connected to the Internet has an IP address, marketers can target every digital channel, including CTV.
Geolocation data can also help marketers build more nuanced profiles of their customers by merging it with their first-party data. They can also infuse greater context into every customer interaction, and answer questions such as: where was the device located when it interacted with our brand?
Marketers can enhance analytics by importing IP data in their martech platform to gain additional insights and make strategic business decisions based on factors such as customer concentration. It can also verify that the correct audience was reached (e.g. right region, business vs. home traffic).
Geolocation Data and Digital Rights Management
IP-based geolocation data helps companies ensure adherence to licensing and copyrights agreements. Programming content (and ads) are served to users based on their precise location (ZIP+4 or POSTCODE).
Moreover, IP data includes VPN and Proxy identification. Streaming and broadcast websites that use geolocation data are able to identify audiences who have masked their location in order to access content to which they’re not entitled under the licensing agreement, an urgent issue, as 20% of potential video revenue is lost due to piracy.
Beyond compliance, IP data provides a host of benefits to streaming companies and broadcasters. For instance, because IP data includes device type and connection type, these companies can deliver content at the optimal speed or format based on the connection type and other datasets.
Geolocation Data and Regulatory Compliance
Nearly every country regulates how specific categories of products may be regulated, including tobacco, weapons, cannabis, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, financial services. These regulations dictate how specific products may be marketed, to whom, warnings that must be included, along with how prominently those warnings must appear with an ad.
The challenge for marketers is that those regulations vary from region to region, sometimes quite significantly. Failure to comply with local laws can lead to significant financial and reputational risk.
IP-based targeting solves the challenge of regional complexity. Every device that is connected to the Internet has a unique IP address, which can be used to identify the critical data marketers need to comply with regulations in every region of the world.
Here’s an example of how geolocation data can be used in real life: A sports streaming service that broadcasts regional sporting events around the world can use proxy/VPN databases to determine which IP addresses to geo-block from piracy attempts.
The streaming service can also use other IP information parameters to determine when a potential pirate is using a new proxy IP to try and gain access again.
Geolocation and Cyber Security
One of the tactics security professionals now use to stop criminal activity is to incorporate a range of IP data, including geolocation data, into existing platforms and technologies. Websites that use geolocation data can detect when a user is connected via a proxy, and assess which kind of proxy is used (anonymous, transparent, public, etc.).
Once the type of proxy is detected, companies can flag potential criminal activities, set protocols for handling this type of “non-human” traffic differently, as well as review the post-facto analytics behind these types of connections.
By incorporating proxy/VPN data on the front-end of online security measures, companies can automatically flag an IP address as suspicious and reject or block the incoming IP from connecting to their service, website or network.
Geolocation Examples in Security
IP geolocation allows security teams to balance risk management. For example, IT administrators can implement smart rules where activity is flagged when they see log-ins from unusual or high-fraud locations. Other geolocation examples include:
| Government | An air-service branch of the government can use IP-based VPN data to filter, identify safe VPNs, then develop traffic exemptions for approved vendors in order to automatically grant access to the agency’s networks and websites. |
| Financial Services/E-commerce | Any company that conducts business online and accepts digital payment can incorporate proxy/VPN data to implement smart rules to verify consumer IP addresses automatically, and then determine which transactions to review—and which to approve or decline. |
| Cyber Security | Managed security service providers (MSSPs) can use proxy/VPN data as a foundational, front-line layer of fraud-prevention security.
They can use these datasets to help prevent unauthorized network and system access attempts. By understanding how online users access and interact with their clients’ networks, MSSPs can be better positioned to more quickly respond to potential cyber threats when unusual activities occur. |
Click here for a more in-depth discussion of these geolocation examples as well as other important applications.
