I’m going to come right out and say it: I have always thought Foursquare as kind of creepy, and with the introduction of Facebook Places in the States last week, I’m a tad worried LBS (or, Location-based Shouting, as I’m going to start to call it) is going to get out of hand. It’s not that I don’t care if you’re at Kew Gardens or Polpo or All Star Lanes, it’s just that I’m sure everyone in the world doesn’t have to be privy to that information as well. I consider myself to be trustworthy – others… I’m not so sure.
You may remember the Please Rob Me campaign started earlier this year by Netherlands-based creatives Frank Groeneveld, Barry Borsboom and Boy van Amstel. It brought to the attention the fact that if you are checking in and announcing publically all the places in the world you are, it leaves wide open, the one place you aren’t…home, which could potentially leave you vulnerable to burglaries. The campaign gained moderate success, but I think it didn’t touch enough on one point – even telling people where you are currently can be dangerous.
I would hope those with stalkers and evil exes wouldn’t use the location-based services, but you never know. If you’re posting your current whereabouts, is that not an invitation itself to be mugged?
While brands are using LBS to an advantage, I worry about consumers’ eagerness to share, and for what purpose? Someone tweeting that they’re working late from the Starbucks on Tottenham Court Road may get a free coffee every once in a while, but they could also be leaving themselves open to having their laptop, Blackberry and iPad pinched on the way out.
Or perhaps, I’m over reacting? What are your thoughts on ‘checking in’?
Really, Mel?
You obviously haven’t had the situation when you’re stuck in town somewhere with a spare hour to kill and you decide to see who you can leech a drink off in the surrounding area. That’s where FourSquare comes into play!
We rarely get time to catch-up with mates living in a big city like London so anything that makes it easier to ‘bump’ into them whilst out and about gets a thumbs up from me!
See you on FourSquare Ms Seasons
I think FourSquare could be a lot of fun, but then I Tweet a lot. But it’s something one would have to use with caution. Perhaps if I were at a concert, or Notting Hill Carnival, I might use it. I certainly won’t use it to show that I’m at home, or work. But it is a safety risk, and many of the users haven’t considered that they are putting themselves at risk. Leo Hickman wrote an interesting article in the Guardian some time back, illustrating how easy it is to stalk complete strangers on FourSquare http://bit.ly/9gsWeB