The Dangers of Facebook Places

Now that Facebook’s new Places feature is out there, should there be rejoicing as all hold hands across the world joyfully embracing a new level of ultra-connectivity akin to ‘The Human Centipede’? Or should we all be afraid of the growing utilitarian regime creeping up around us; aware of our location at all times, aware of our every desire and primed and ready to throw exactly what we want into our faces before we even know it exists?

Places has 3 Main Features:

Location

With all the location finding and Wi-Fi hunting gizmos on your smart phone, Places can work out where you are and highlight on your map where and what all your nearest local businesses are. It does this with a combination of GPS and hotspot seeking nanobots (if only). If you are in a location already, such as ‘Big Dave’s Colonic Irrigation Clinic’ then you can ‘check-in’ to that location much in the same way you can with ‘Foursquare’ so that if any of your friends are passing, they know you are there.

Find Friends

This works both ways, so when you next wake up after a night out under a minibus, you can scramble out and find which greasy spoon your mates have gone for their morning-after-the-night-before breakfast. As long as the greasy spoon has a Places listing of course and as long as when you scrambled out from under the minibus you hadn’t found that your friends had drugged you and dumped you in Mexico.

Comment on Places

Another feature is the comments feature. This allows you to comment on the facilities at locations you have visited, leaving personalised recommendations or condemnations for any of your friends who think about popping into somewhere you have been. Perfect for any budding restraint or bungee jumping centre critics out there.

Is it better than Google Places?

Well that remains to be seen. The Wall Street Journal posted a comment from Google:

“We always welcome additional tools that help put people in touch with information about the world around them,” – John Hanke, Google VP.

Google probably isn’t too worried for now as they have been steadily amassing Place pages for a ton of local businesses and public places for quite a while now. It will take a minor miracle from Facebook if they hope to outgun Google at this stage.

So what is all this about Dangers?

Well giving up your privacy to let people know where you are at all times can be very dangerous for your personal and financial security. You wouldn’t post a note in the local paper saying, “I am going to be out at Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the whole day so I won’t be in, I will check-out of that location when I’m heading home just so you know.” Any keen eyed burglar can spot that opportunity a mile away.

‘But if they’re not my friend then they won’t know where I am’, I hear you say. Well that’s where the tagging option comes in to play. Google Places users can ‘tag’ their friends much in the same way they can already with a picture, but being tagged in a picture is a lot less immediate than being suddenly tagged in your actual physical location. Also, how many of your Facebook ‘Friends’ aren’t actually your friends at all? Do you really want EVERYONE knowing where you are at all times? You can of course ‘un-tag’ yourself but by the time you spot you have been tagged the damage can already been done.

Imagine you are out at a bar when you told your wife you were still at work and she spots that you have been tagged at that location. Dangerous you see. To avoid this, and any other potential dangers you can think of, make sure to disable the ‘Friends can check me in to Places’ option in your privacy settings.

So if you must buy in to this all new utilitarian tracking game, then at least do it in the safest way possible.

Are you a business owner excited about the opportunities Facebook Places holds for you or will you be looking forward to becoming the major of your local tanning salon every Wednesday?

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