Ayça Kurtuluş, chair of the Safe Digital World Association and a cyber strategy expert, warned that sharing locations on social media can expose far more than people realize, including daily routines and behavioral patterns that can be used to track individuals.
"Location sharing doesn’t just show where we are,” Kurtuluş said. "It reveals our daily routines, habits and digital footprint. Over time, people begin to act based on how others perceive them and this can turn into an invisible digital prison.”
Kurtuluş said one of the most common digital habits, checking in or tagging locations, can carry significant risks even if it appears harmless.
"One of the most innocent habits in digital life is sharing location,” she said. "We constantly say, ‘I am here,’ whether through check-ins, map-based apps or tagging restaurants on social media. But behind this seemingly harmless behavior lie serious risks. It reveals not only where we are, but also our routines and habits. Over time, people start prioritizing how others see them, which can become a form of psychological pressure.”
She added that location sharing can influence relationships and decision-making, sometimes becoming a "trust test” between couples.
"Location sharing can turn into a test of trust,” she said. "Some couples say, ‘If you don’t share your location, we break up.’ This is psychological pressure.”
Kurtuluş said children are especially vulnerable because their digital identities are often created before they can understand or consent to how their data is used.
She said many parents begin sharing images, names, locations and milestones from birth, sometimes unintentionally building a detailed digital profile that can persist into adulthood.
"A mother starts photographing her child from the moment they are born, even in the hospital,” she said. "From birth announcements to location tags, all of this becomes part of a digital record.”
Kurtuluş warned that this long-term data trail could be pieced together using emerging technologies.
"Artificial intelligence can connect these images like a puzzle and build a detailed profile of the child over time,” she said. "In the future, this kind of profile could influence trust assessments or even hiring decisions.”
She said artificial intelligence can reconstruct a detailed profile of a person from photos and posts shared over time, including in childhood. That data, she said, could one day be used in hiring decisions or sold by data brokers to insurers.
"If you frequently post about fast food and share your location, that data can be sold to health insurance companies,” she said. "You may then be classified as higher risk and your premiums could increase.”
Kurtuluş urged greater digital awareness, noting that location data and metadata from photos can still be extracted even when users do not explicitly tag their posts.
"There is a large amount of data in every location post, known as a digital footprint,” she said. "We should use settings like ‘only while using the app’ rather than always allowing location access. We should avoid sharing children’s data online.”
She also cautioned against real-time posting while traveling or enjoying social events, saying it can create safety risks.
"When we are having fun, we tend to share our location the most,” she said. "We say, ‘Look how happy I am, I’m on vacation.’ But in those moments, we can also be vulnerable. A simple location post can make us a target.”
"Digital awareness protects both our safety and our assets,” she added.