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.
