Location-based apps are growing in popularity, but do people around campus trust them?

As smartphones become more and more popular, location-based apps are also growing in use, helping users uncover new hotspots or socialize with others.

Here at Case Western Reserve, many of you are using them—though not everyone is sold on the benefits. The No. 1 response in the poll was from people who use them to find new places and connect easier; combine that with the No. 3 response of people who use them but aren’t sold on the benefits, and the majority of those surveyed actually do use these location-based apps.

In second place, though, were a high number of voters who don’t use location-based apps because they feel they’re intrusive or unsafe, while a handful of people don’t use a smartphone.

A few write-in answers showed people see the benefits of the GPS function that goes along with location-based apps, both for running and getting driving directions. Where the future of location-based apps—and their safety—will go is yet to be determined, but they’re certainly a growing trend around CWRU.

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