Is privacy still an issue in the era of big data? — Location disclosure in spatial footprints

Geospatial data that were once difficult to obtain are now readily available to the public with the development of geospatial technologies. The ubiquitous use of social networking and location-based services enables easy sharing of personal stories among many people. With or without awareness of location disclosure, some users reveal a considerable amount of geopersonal information to the general public. Privacy issues have been raised again in the GIScience community. This study shows that home and work places may be inferred from georeferenced tweets of heavy Twitter users. Is privacy still an issue in the era of big data when people freely share blogs, photos, videos, and spatial footprints over the Internet? Or do people willingly decide to give out location information in order to gain benefits from the disclosure? After a discussion on possible reasons for people to share spatial footprints, this paper invites more research on perception of geoprivacy.