GPS
Panel-based GPS observations from a representative sample of US mobile users. Used as the primary signal for USA foot-traffic and movement metrics.
Aggregation starts on the device
The panel signal is aggregated client-side, before it ever reaches Pine59. What we receive are aggregated observations, not raw location traces: no names, no advertising identifiers, no device-level movement histories. There is no personal data in our pipeline to leak, sell, or subpoena, because it never crosses our boundary in the first place.
Every published statistic is then further protected by the methodology below (extrapolation to population estimates, minimum-cohort suppression, rounding), so no output can be traced back to any individual panel member.
Why this matters in restricted states
Several US states have passed legislation restricting the sale of individual location data. Because the Pine59 pipeline never handles individual-level location data, with the aggregation happening at the source, we can continue to produce and sell aggregated visitation statistics in markets where raw location-data products cannot operate. The signal is privacy-safe by construction, not by after-the-fact scrubbing.
Availability
Continuous since 2019.
Latest data
Updated daily; processing lag ~5–6 days.
Metric models using this signal
- Foot Traffic
Methodology
How this signal is turned into metrics. These are the entries that apply to a GPS panel signal.
- Home & work inference : Estimating the likely home and work areas of visitor groups, always at area level and never an address, to enable resident / worker / visitor breakdowns, trade areas, and visitor-only scoping for Visit Length.
- Extrapolation : Scaling the observed sample of devices up to population-level visit estimates, so counts reflect real-world volume rather than sample size.
- Privacy approach : Pine59 products are built for statistical use only, and no output can be linked to an individual person.