More Privacy Stuff That Concerns All of Us
This article at Mashable brings up some good points about how we are perhaps a little too eager to share things via social media, including our location.
Are you an avid user of apps like FourSquare, Google Buzz, or Yelp that allow you to ‘check in’ at the location where you currently are? Have you ever considered that when you do this, you are publishing your current location and the fact that you are not home to complete strangers? Sites like Please Rob Me even help people figure out your patterns and see if you are not at home. Just call it burglary 2.0… or stalking 2.0… depends on what the person viewing your info wants to do.
Is it ever acceptable to publish your location? Sure. If your Twitter feed and Facebook profile is set to private, you are limiting that info to what should be family and friends. However, if your information is getting published publicly, you might be putting yourself at risk. Note that in Google Buzz that if Google knows where you are, they will publish it (oh yeah, had to get my paranoia infused into at least one post today).
So, use these services at your own risk. Is becoming the mayor of McDonald’s truly worth all your valuables?
