Location-Based Services Grow in Popularity

The number of people who use "geosocial" location-based services like Foursquare has more than doubled in the last year, according to a Friday report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

About 10 percent of adults now "check in" to various locations, up from .

About 18 percent of smartphone owners use these check-in services, while about 74 percent of smartphone owners use their device to get real-time, location-based information like directions or recommendations.

"This means that the overall proportion of U.S. adults who get location-based information has almost doubled over that time period, from 23 percent in May 2011 to 41 percent in February 2012," Pew found.

Pew did not break out which services people are using to "check in," but mentioned Foursquare and Gowalla, which was last year and subsequently .

Location-based services were big news last year, particularly after it was revealed that Apple was collecting a large amount of location data from iOS users. Cupertino said it was a bug and .

But concerns about how much information tech firms and app developers are collecting about their users remain, with members of Congress and government agencies chiming in with calls for more secure options.

Earlier this week, Sen. Al Franken asked the Department of Justice for more details on how it obtains and uses personal location data amidst reports that state and local officials are securing GPS data without a warrant.