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As compared to other methods of gathering geolocation data, this method offers the following advantages:

• The privacy protection is automatic. Other systems require that everyone being tracked define their (temporal or geographic) privacy parameters appropriately. But, inevitably, some user will fail to turn off the tracking or to geofence a sensitive area, a stalker will use that information to harm the user, and the corporation involved will suffer embarrassment, liability, and declining participation.
  
  Giving users control over 'their' data sounds good. But it would be better to anonymize the data so that it no longer belongs to the user.
  
  
• This method makes it possible to use individual tracks without aggregation. In contrast, other methods seek to protect privacy by aggregating (i.e. lumping together) lots of tracks. But aggregation inherently involves a major loss of data. So, for example, aggregated tracks could give you a handle on how many people pass a given corner, but it won't give you a lot of detail on where each of those people started and ended his trip. So, you wouldn't know if the corner were more suited to a Neiman Marcus or a Target.
  
  
• Very useful data can be gathered using by tracking relatively few people for a relatively short time. First, each individual track showing precise movements in the public space contains a lot of data. Second, recruiting a random sample of subjects limits the number of people you need to track.
  
  By way of contrast, some other systems try to piggyback on a popular social app. But the resulting data is inevitably biased by the audience drawn to that app. And its not like the app's owner will give away the data free of charge. If you are going to pay for data, you'd be wise to just pay a relative handful of carefully selected subjects for the right to track them (while preserving their anonymity).

Can I start using this method?