Mobile Commons: Addresses, Locations, Geocoding, Latitude and Longitude in Profiles

All profiles in Mobile Commons have address fields in them. They can be blank, partially filled in, or fully filled in. The address information comes from a few possible sources:

• you ask the user to reply with their address information in an opt-in path or broadcast and click the bubble to collect "address" when setting up the opt-in path or broadcast conversation. The user texts back their address information and it is saved in their profile
• the user fills out their address on a webform and it is saved in their profile
• you upload phones numbers with address information
• you have a CRM sync set up with Mobile Commons and we pull address information from your CRM
  
  

Based on the address information in a profile, Mobile Commons will automatically geocode the profile, a.k.a. provide a latitude and longitude based on the profile address information. You will see latitudes and longitudes listed as columns in reports you download from Mobile Commons. If all we have is an area code, or only have zip code, or only city and state, we will use the location latitude and longitude listed in Google Maps for that area code, zip, and/or city and state. For example, if a profile only has Brooklyn, NY in the address fields, we will provide a latitude and longitude of 40.692385 x -73.989872, which matches to the latitude and longitude that comes up when you use Google Maps to search for "Brooklyn, NY".

If we only have a phone number the area code plus first 3 digits of the phone number will be used to assign a normalized address. This combination gives us a city & state location. The normalized address will be the center of that city and state. For example, 908-358 is the start of a phone number whose profile has no other address information. This area code, 908, is in northern New Jersey, and 358 codes to Newark, NJ. On this profile without any additional information the normalized address will be Newark, NJ 07101 which is the center point of Newark, NJ.

If we have a full address, like in the example below, we will give an exact latitude and longitude that matches with that full address.

Normalized Address: This address is based on the address information in the profile. If the address fields are blank in a profile, we use the area code for location information.

Note: we do not, and cannot, tap into a user's phone's GPS. Address and location information is based on the address information saved in a user's profile.