I don’t use services like Foursquare because you can usually guess my location, and if you can’t, I probably don’t want to share it with you. I’ve been told that location-based services with granular privacy-controls are perfect for me, because you can determine exactly who has access to what.
Maybe, but location data has value to those you don’t want to share it with. People will always want to get in touch with the wealthy, powerful, or famous, and for the rest of us, there’s process servers, stalkers, and the ever-popular relationship drama. If sharing your location becomes ubiquitous – and I think it might for those of us who aren’t grumpy old men like me – some entrepreneur’s going to set up the equivalent of Jigsaw (an e-mail contact database) and start letting your ‘social network’ trade your location for someone else’s. Or they’ll just pay them for it.
It’s probably safest to assume that in the future, everyone’s location will be available to everyone who really wants it, and start thinking through the implications of that.
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Once upon a time I had a theory…
I didn’t have a cell because if you wanted to ring I was at home or the office. If I wasn’t in, you could guess my location, and if you couldn’t, I probably didn’t want to share it with you & I didn’t want bothering.
… now I’ve got a cell.
Laughed out loud at that one.
I had the same theory.
Interesting take.
I think that sufficiently motiviated process servers and stalkers would be able to find me without the benefit of location based services. Google should suffice. Any jilted former lover worth their salt shouldn’t need Foursquare either.
I haven’t had to avoid any of these three types of people in the past, but in the movies they always find their target at their home or their place of work — two places you could probably find via Google but not via Foursquare. I think by exposing the bars and restaurants that I eat at, the likely effect will be an increase in serendipitous encounters with well wishers (per Fred Wilson’s post http://bit.ly/2RMpst) rather than increase in my enemies successfully hunting me down.
Greg wrote: “If sharing your location becomes ubiquitous – and I think it might for those of us who aren’t grumpy old men like me” …
I thought it was poignant that Greg brought up the fact that “grumpy old men” might not want to share their location. I too would classify myself as a “grumpy old man”. However, I have recently embarked upon a venture that relies upon people sharing their location. While I may not be able to understand why people would want to share their location all of the time, I think it is important to recognize that younger folks are willing to do so, and we must plan for such ubiquity.