In the “about” section of the Foursquare website they describe the application as a “friend finder, a social city guide….Foursquare lets users ‘check in’ to a place when they’re there, tell friends where they are and track the history of where they’ve been and who they have been there with.” That is a lot of information to be sending out over the World Wide Web, especially in real time. So why are people so surprised when they are approached by a similarly connected stranger? Scary? Yes. Unexpected? Shouldn’t be.
One function of Foursquare is to allow people to track where other people are in real time. It is great for conferences where it is hard to find one’s friends within a field of hundreds. It is great for businesses to track those who frequent their establishments and what those people are saying about their business. Like anything else on the web, it can be abused. People are people. That is my shorthand for saying, not everyone has your best interest at heart.
When I check into Foursquare I am aware I have broadcast my location over the internet. Even if I have checked off the necessary boxes to not display my information to Twitter or my friends, it is the internet and things can go wrong. This is the scary new world we live in.
Stay safe, friends. You can increase your network and therefore your exponential reach to others but never give into the temptation to be lazy with the tools of the internet. You may not be a carpenter and a mobile application may not be a saw but that does not mean it can not cause you to lose more than a limb.
Valid point... one is putting themselves out there when they are checking in. One should not expect anything different.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little disappointed in people who put their real name, real photograph and location into the internets and are shocked shocked when a stranger "recognizes" them. That said, location service providers need to do a better job of explaining what they're doing with your information. When in doubt, follow the money - who's paying the bills at foursquare and the like? Well, VCs for now, but later it'll be businesses that you're checking in at, and when that's the case, don't expect that they won't get priority access to the info of people checking in at their places. $0.02 from a guy who hides behind a cartoon duck.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Jess. I think people have unrealistic expectations regarding their safety on the internet. Sometimes I wonder if they think everything stays in some tidy little box and can't reach them on the outside. That is the only explanation I can think of for their behavior.
ReplyDeleteLimeduck, I'm more than disappointed. I'm baffled. And I agree with your look on the future of location based apps. I cautiously play around with them now but I may soon follow Mr. Herzog as more people get their fingers into the data that is generated from these apps.
Mr. Herzog, I agree location based apps are NOT social networking sites but I don't think they are entirely innocent of pretending to be. They look like fun to a novice. "Tell your friends where you are and make new ones! Make friends with business owners and get them to appreciate your business!"
I had a positive outcome from a bad restaurant experience because of Foursquare. When I complained on Twitter, they saw, through Foursquare, how much I frequent their establishment and reached out to me. Granted, they should treat all their customers well but data showing how much business I do with them gave me extra credibility.
I'd be in favour of a model where the info is shared only with the business owner & patrons but I probably still wouldn't use it for big box chains. They are already gathering enough of our data elsewhere.
Thank you all for reading!