Earlier this week, I mentioned how important it is to be aware of whether or not you're posting your location on Twitter, and how to adjust your settings. Well, this is also important on other social networks like Facebook, and an increasingly popular one called Foursquare.
I've written about Foursquare here on WebRev before, mostly making fun of the concept. Now that I'm seeing more and more of my (adult) friends posting their locations on their status updates, I'm beginning to have some real concerns about the security and privacy issues with this technology. Foursquare has indicated that it has over 10M users already (and is celebrating by making it's mobile app look more like Google Search), and that's one of the smaller networks that offers location services. The draw is the possibility of being offered a discount of some sort to whatever restaurant, theater, hotel or other business you are visiting. Sure - everyone likes discounts and freebies, but seriously - do you think businesses are highly motivated to give you a discount after you are already in their doors?! Of course not. The discounts will be minimal. What the businesses want is your data, and reviews, and the free publicity on the social networks.
That would be OK, I guess, but the businesses you are frequenting aren't the only ones who want the data you are freely providing for all the world to see. The social networks are logging that information so they can do a more accurate job of spamming you advertising to you - as do they third party advertisers on these sites. Criminals want the information so they know when your family is not home, and if you have children, the worst kind of predators want this type of information on families such as yours so they can keep better tabs on your kids, what they like, who their friends are and when they are most vulnerable.
For the same reason that you don't leave information about your exact plans to be away from home on your answering machine (oh, please tell me you don't do that!), you really should not be broadcasting your whereabouts over the interwebs. If you're an adult, your friends (especially if I'm one of them) are likely to think you're silly. If you're a young person, this habit could be dangerous.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.
As we discussed earlier this week, Foursquare is a popular location-based social networking site (See Foursquare - So everyone can know where you are ALL THE TIME). By "popular," I meant: "I can't believe this start-up got more 100,000 users," NOT: "They're about to put Facebook, which has almost twice as many users as the United States has legal residents, out of business." Actually, Foursquare has less than 1% of the number of users that Facebook has, according to most of the reports I've seen, but Facebook had to jump in on the action, anyway. Thus: Facebook Places.
Actually, it's mostly only available to iPhone users at the moment, but the idea is that if you want everyone to know where you are (and see if you have any friends nearby), you can go on touch.facebook.com, and click "check in," then follow the instructions. You'll also have the ability to tag any peeps who might already be traveling with you.
The good news about this is that (for now, at least), this is an opt-in feature. Does this mean that Facebook learned a lesson from it's open graph fiasco? Or that it simply didn't want to make a bunch of people mad right before its movie hits theaters? We'll probably never know for sure, but for now, if you don't want to participate in Facebook places, you don't have to do anything. Maybe.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.
I have to admit that foursquare.com is one of those social media trends that I just can't get excited about. For one thing, I'm a bit of a privacy-control freak, and really don't want most people to know exactly where I am most of the time (as if they even cared). For another, I'm already active on other sites. But foursquare.com is getting too big to completely ignore.
To me, this seems a lot like just signing up for spam, but I was encouraged to see that there's an Android app, just in case I do, indeed want to get some of that spam. (Yeah, I like my Droid.) But I'll let you see for yourself. Here's a video explaining how the service works.
Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.
