"The technology business [and] the advertising business has done a terrible job ... of saying, 'How do the consumers feel about this?'" said Duncan McCall, co-founder and CEO of PlaceIQ, which converts location information into intelligence about specific areas.

Sharing location information today is viewed with suspicion just as sharing credit-card numbers on the Web was 15 years ago, and it will evolve as well, McCall said.

However, the industry's conduct plays a role too, said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse, which offers a service for sharing your location to specific people for a limited time.

"It's not just about consumer education, it's also about people being responsible on the other end of it," Trussel said. While carriers typically are, some app developers have taken risks with users' data, he said.

Recent scandals have not helped the cause, panelists said, probably referring to disclosures about Carrier IQ's phone software and about mobile apps accessing iPhone address books. Lack of transparency has caused problems, said Joel Grossman, chief operating officer of Location Labs. Such problems have worked against a positive trend, he said. "Users, I think, are starting to trust more and more the carriers to protect their private data," Grossman said.