A hot topic of conversation in the wireless world this year has been the growth of advertising on cell phones. Mobile advertising comes with pros (like the potential for a reduced phone bill with the cost offset by ads) and cons (primarily in the form of privacy concerns); so far, it’s something that really hasn’t taken off in the United States. However, Sprint Nextel has laid the groundwork to be one of the first cell phone companies to engage in serious targeted marketing via mobile phones.

The company has managed to word its privacy policies in a way that serves to protect customers while still allowing marketing data to be released to advertisers. Other wireless companies haven’t achieved this balance and their attempts to change privacy policies to allow for marketing have been met with customer concerns as a result.

While Sprint Nextel’s method is fairly innocuous, it does open the door for more aggressive mobile advertising practices that could ultimately compromise consumer privacy to a greater degree. Your phone has the potential to provide information about who you are and where you spend your time in a way that could be more intrusive than online marketing. It is believed that Google will be one of the companies that really harnesses the ability to track information and to market via the mobile phone using the Android platform to do so.