5 Things that weird me out about "checking in": The Dangers of location based social networking.
Ok here's the deal. I know you love checking in places with your iPhone or Android. It's cool. We all get to see where you are. Gowalla. Foursquare. Facebook. I can go on and on. I get it, I'm supposed to go "Yeah! Let's meet!" Wonderful, great idea.
Now think of this little detail: have you ever thought about all the bad things that happen when you publish your every move during the day? Let's give you five reasons why you need to think about this.
1) Check in far from your house - hours and hours - and if I'm a robber, I hit the jackpot. I just need you to be far enough so I can have decent time to bust through your door, get your Xbox, select from your DVD selection, eat your cookies and go home.
2) Check in at the bar with your current loved one - and if I'm a psycho stalker who is really pissed off that you left me for him or her, I can have enough time to get dressed, put on some cologne/perfume and go creep the shit out of you. Yeah. I'll look at you from afar. Silently. Creepy.
3) Whatever happened to disappearing, even from the internet? When you log off, you are free. No more Facebook, no more Twitter, no more emails. Don't you feel connected fully enough? Don't you sometimes long for people not knowing where you are?
4) If I'm any kind of platform and you connect by using your Twitter or Facebook accounts, then bingo. I got all your information, photos, friend names... and now I know exactly where you live, where you are, where you've been, what is your normal driving route, what your weekends look like... In short, you gave me more information about you. Information I can totally abuse of. Now I can send you more spam, more ads. Now I can sell your information to more clients. It's called Mother. Yeah. Pink Floyd had it right all along.
5) Geotagging is the ultimate way to basically kill all what's left of your privacy. That's it. You don't have any more. You ran out. Now not only I know the name of the place where you live, where you go to lunch, where you like to have a few drinks, where you eat afterwards, where you end up late at night... now I have the exact routes to find you. Now think about all the creepy/weird/crazy/jealous like shit people who would give a nut to have that information. And no. You cannot stop it from leaking out.
Now... what do you think? By the way, I'd like you to know I wrote this from my house.
Somewhere in Earth.
Now think of this little detail: have you ever thought about all the bad things that happen when you publish your every move during the day? Let's give you five reasons why you need to think about this.
1) Check in far from your house - hours and hours - and if I'm a robber, I hit the jackpot. I just need you to be far enough so I can have decent time to bust through your door, get your Xbox, select from your DVD selection, eat your cookies and go home.
2) Check in at the bar with your current loved one - and if I'm a psycho stalker who is really pissed off that you left me for him or her, I can have enough time to get dressed, put on some cologne/perfume and go creep the shit out of you. Yeah. I'll look at you from afar. Silently. Creepy.
3) Whatever happened to disappearing, even from the internet? When you log off, you are free. No more Facebook, no more Twitter, no more emails. Don't you feel connected fully enough? Don't you sometimes long for people not knowing where you are?
4) If I'm any kind of platform and you connect by using your Twitter or Facebook accounts, then bingo. I got all your information, photos, friend names... and now I know exactly where you live, where you are, where you've been, what is your normal driving route, what your weekends look like... In short, you gave me more information about you. Information I can totally abuse of. Now I can send you more spam, more ads. Now I can sell your information to more clients. It's called Mother. Yeah. Pink Floyd had it right all along.
5) Geotagging is the ultimate way to basically kill all what's left of your privacy. That's it. You don't have any more. You ran out. Now not only I know the name of the place where you live, where you go to lunch, where you like to have a few drinks, where you eat afterwards, where you end up late at night... now I have the exact routes to find you. Now think about all the creepy/weird/crazy/jealous like shit people who would give a nut to have that information. And no. You cannot stop it from leaking out.
Now... what do you think? By the way, I'd like you to know I wrote this from my house.
Somewhere in Earth.
