If you install an app on your smartphone these days, the chances are that it will ask to see your location, as well as other personal identifying data – and saying no to it will likely disable most, if not all of its appealing features.

One classic example of this is the newly remadeGoogle Maps for the iPhone.  Obviously, being a maps application, it needs to know your location so it can help you with directions to and from home.  Another is Foursquare, which relies solely on knowing your location so it can broadcast it out to the whole world.But in the rush to get involved in these apps, and be part of the “in-crowd”, how safe are these “location-based services” and is it worth the trade-off between security, privacy and safety, versus a convenient cool little app on your phone?

Our infographic today, courtesy of Online Colleges.com is all about this very important subject.  When you allow location-based services to kick in, you are basically handing over all of your personal information to third party advertisers. But the vast majority of smartphone users would still use location-based app, which seems to suggest that, in this day and age of 24/7 Internet marketing, people really don’t care too much about who has their personal information.  As long as they have a cool phone app in return.

What are your own personal feelings on this? Are you willing to trade security, privacy and safety, in return for a cool smartphone app?  Or does your privacy win out every time?  Do you think smartphone users in general have become immune to online advertising and therefore do not care about who knows what about them?