Several social networks now-a-days seem to be adding a geolocation features to their social networks. Social networks like Twitter, Loopt, Foursquare, and Google’s new Buzz, just to name a few, seem to be racing to see who can make the best Geolocation social network or check-in system. The question is, is that really a good idea? Is broadcasting when and where you are at a given time a wise thing to do?

There has been many privacy concerns about geolocation service that they could allow people to know when you’re out of town or when you’re simply out of the house. Giving them the opportunity to break in and steal your stuff while they know your out. People often will check-in or tweet from their home giving away at the least the city, state, and road they live on.

A lot of the networks don’t give the exact address but the location on the road and the title of the location, which might be enough if someone lives in a house with a little bit of land. People don’t think twice about tweeting that they are going out of town or on holiday perhaps and with the help of a geolocation stamp a thief could have a list of people to rob over the holiday weekend.

I see the appeal of the service being a big social networking fan. If everyone used geolocation you could have a map full of restaurant reviews from friends or a notifications that your friends just arrived at the coffee shop down the street. I can see it could be useful but at the same time people don’t really need to know all that do they? If I want you to come to the coffee shop I would have called and invited you. I don’t need people social network stalking me and I don’t need to let everyone know where I am at all times.

I think the right attitude is to not get paranoid and shutdown all your social networking profiles but know what security features the service offers and use them. Only let people who are your friends view your updates to prevent people from stalking you or casually finding out what you’re up to. Be mindful of what you post online and don’t post anything that could be used to steal your identity or find where you live. Above all just use your common sense and know that there are people out there that will use your profiles against you.

Tags: geolocation, privacy, security

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.