Patent ID: 8473729

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: enabling, on a computing device, a user to selectively enable and disable location-aware computing on the computing device during basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration of the computing device; receiving, on the computing device, a location request from a requestor for a location associated with the computing device, the location including a plurality of location properties; determining, on the computing device, whether location-aware computing is enabled or disabled during an operating system run-time; providing a pop-up dialog box that comprises the plurality of location properties in an individually selectable list in response to (i) location-aware computing being enabled and (ii) privacy preferences associated with the requestor not yet being specified, the privacy preferences indicate which of the plurality of location properties to be shared with and/or blocked from the requestor; and requesting specification of the privacy preferences associated with each of the plurality of location properties for the requestor from the user in response to (i) location-aware computing being enabled and (ii) the privacy preferences associated with the requestor not yet being specified.