Why I don't tell people my location --

[alfreda89]

This article illustrates what I find inconceivable about some of the location apps. Call me a privacy nut, call me a safety nut, call me mysterious. I don't want people finding out the history of my life by reading stuff off a site.

I played that game once early on with some good friends. And then realized that my info was public and that any crazy could access it.

So I deleted that account, and never dressed up Facebook the same way. Which will make my Timeline page look rather naked, I know, but what the heck.

I am a novelist, an artist, a social liberal and a fiscal conservative -- as anyone surveying my live journal can figure out.

The rest might be a red herring... ;^)

Comments

[sheilagh.livejournal.com]

The app I think they should offer: "Where are the 7 out of 8 rapists around me?" (isn't it something like that, only 1 in 8 (or 10?) rapes is even reported? that means x out of x+1 rapists aren't even identified, which would at least help other women!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Apparently FourSquare freaked out when someone pointed them at that article, and has now blocked the app from accessing their data. Facebook is "still investigating" (and most likely won't bother doing anything).

Still, that doesn't solve the problem. What one app developer wrote, another one can copy, and we're right back where we started. The only genuine cure is to do what he advocates in the article -- educate people about how to keep their online information out of the hands of sleazy apps in the first place. My Facebook account is locked down as tightly as I can keep it, starting with not being indexable by search engines.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I saw that, and my first thought was "Doesn't anyone working there have any imagination? Or any sense of liability?" How could that have not occurred to them?

Oh, of course -- they're all young male geeks?

How do you make sure your Facebook account is not indexable, if that's not a complicated thing to ask? I think mine is fairly locked down (you can tell my birth date, a fake employer and at least one bogus relative) but don't know about Facebook.

[sheilagh.livejournal.com]

I've read recently that Zuckerberg, in true "wow, ants in a JAR!" fashion, has fiddled with data analysis and determined that he can predict who will be dating whom, next week, by analysing who has looked at who else's profile, plus a few other factors.

Playing god....

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Not surprising, and not comforting.