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I agree. I mean this is the reason I don't use Foursquare. Why on earth would I tell the entire Internet where I am and where I've been....
by rvcamo 15y ago
I agree. I mean this is the reason I don't use Foursquare. Why on earth would I tell the entire Internet where I am and where I've been....
- samstave 15y agoLooks like you just might have something to hide.
- hack_edu 15y agoOr just doesn't want to share yet-more data to a marketing company.
- olliesaunders 15y agoPeople don’t think about privacy issues because our psychology doesn’t trigger much emotion for autonomous opt-in broadcast to people not currently visible. There’s no sense of violation. It’s very easy to forget about it and it starts to feel normal. In a way it’s also empowering to be so open; it makes you feel like you’re not afraid of anything. If you actually step through what is happening when you use these apps (all the individual people you are informing of where you are and have been, your habits, preferences—a complete digital record) you might start to see some risks. Then ask yourself, even if it was easy, would you go round handing out that data on paper to large groups of contacts indiscriminately on a regular basis indefinitely? That’s what’s actually happening here. Now remember there are people (trolls) who get a kick out of being able to do things to do from a safe distance for no reason at all. There are also people closer to you who have fragile egos or maybe you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Using something like Foursquare is giving these people ammunition. The fantasy we like to believe is that everyone we know is trustworthy. The reality is not so rosy.
- jes5199 15y agoWhy wouldn't I tell the internet where I am? It's not really a compromising piece of information. (For example: Right now I'm in an office building at 5th and Mission, in San Francisco!) I know that some people have a safety need to stay more hidden than I do, and we should continue to make it possible for them to stay unmapped. But for the average person: I don't think their physical location is that significant or dangerous.
- nownow 15y agoI agree. Broadcasting your location is only dangerous if you are in a potential position of danger. The fact that you are at work in a secure office building (presumably at Square) means you are probably not in a position of danger. Also, you probably don't worry about being followed home from work. If a young woman were broadcasting which shortcut down the alley she tends to take on her way home from work, one might argue that is a different story. You are not vulnerable at your location; some people might accidentally publish a trend of vulnerable locations.
- j4b 15y agoBroadcasting your location also broadcasts where you aren't. I'm shocked there haven't been more news stories (or scare stories) about people being burglarized based on checkins.
- cstejerean 15y agoMost people aren't at home during regular working hours. That might be why most burglaries occur during daytime hours when nobody is at home. No location sharing necessary.
- toyg 15y agoMaybe because tracking down the address for a Jesse W. in SanFrancisco isn't that hard (you just need the right website), and after that... Somebody already pointed out that a "Burglar Me Please" app would be banal to write: you just walk along SF, and the app will tell you which owner is home and which is away, and how far s/he is; correlate with Facebook (is he married? is he so young he might be sharing his flat?) and you get a list of easy targets in the area. It's not only about where you are, it's also about where you are not at any given time.