Warning! The Scary Side of The Hot New Location-Based Technology
February 25, 2010 by guruofnew
Filed under social media
Last night, one of our own got a terrifying lesson in what can go wrong with the hot new location-based social technology:
@CarriBugbee : Deleting FourSquare. 2 strangers called me @ restaurant I was at after seeing my updates on PleaseRobMe.com. One called me a “stupid bitch.”
When the controversial new site called Please Rob Me emerged recently, with its mission of exposing the possible pitfalls of the current geo-location craze, it all felt somewhat abstract. Yes, it’s eerie to see familiar faces and know exactly where they are — one of the Bay Area’s most famous business leaders, for example, just checked in to FourSquare from a building in Washington, D.C. But who ever believes the bad stuff is going to happen to them?
Which is exactly why the founders of PleaseRobMe created the site: “On one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz, etc.”
If you’re checking-in via a location-sharing site to a local restaurant and pushing these updates out to your public Twitter stream, as social innovator @CarriBugbee did, you’re telling the world that you aren’t home. Which could mean that your home is ripe for burglary — or that you’re ripe for stalking. Those of us who work in the social media realm frequently get so enthused about new technology, wanting to beta-test all things new, that we sometimes forget about the potential dark side. We forget about friends who may get over-zealous with our personal information — like a home address. These personal privacy threats certainly exist throughout social media — but seldom in such a physical and potentially dangerous way. Identity theft absolutely sucks. But it’s not the same as coming home and finding your grandmother’s jewelry missing or wondering who’s following you in that shadowy parking lot.
PleaseRobMe’s Twitter account has been shut down, supposedly for suspicious (spammy) activity. But the original site is still up and running and scaring the heck out of me every time I see check-ins from my friends.
Should you delete your FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt or Brightkite accounts? Or is it possible to practice safe location-sharing? I’d love to hear from you about this via @guruofnew.
