Best practices for geo-location social media & the dangers
A while ago now, Facebook launched Facebook Places. Jumping on the geo-location bandwagon of FourSquare and Gowalla, Facebook added the feature enabling users to 'check-in' and share their location with their Facebook friends. In theory, geo-location social media is great. Why? Well, say you're in Starbucks in Leicester Square. You check in. Your friend sees your check in on Facebook, calls and says "hey! I'm just round the corner from there! Wanna meet up?". Or... you're browsing through a shop on Oxford Street and check in. Clever marketing enables a pop up saying "hey! Did you know the shop 2 doors down is offering 20% off exclusively for FourSquare users?". See? It has it's benefits.
BUT... it also has it's dangers. When Facebook launched Places, they were irresponsible not to also include some best practice guidelines. Don't just switch on a feature that could potentially have HUGE privacy implications and not forewarn users!
The reason I blog this is because today I noticed a friend had checked into their parents home. Sounds fine. Only they also tagged and checked in their parents too. Said parents, not being that social media savvy, obviously did not know about Places, or the associated privacy settings. So anyone could pop round, set up their home on Places, check in, tag them too, and all 3 people now have a Facebook update on their walls, saying this is where I live, I am here now. Why is that bad? Well, if you are not social media clued up, you probably haven't played with your privacy settings. So you may not have set your profile to "just friends" instead of anyone and everyone. Which means potentially, anyone can see your profile, see the Places check in and see where you live with pinpoint accuracy on a map. People are so careful with privacy, tearing off their addresses off letters before recycling them and shredding mail so no one sees their personal information, yet they happily check in to geo-location social media at home, telling the world where they live! I'm not saying that Facebook Places, FourSquare and Gowalla are bad... but there's definitely a need for some education on how to use it.
SO... here's a few hints and tips...
BUT... it also has it's dangers. When Facebook launched Places, they were irresponsible not to also include some best practice guidelines. Don't just switch on a feature that could potentially have HUGE privacy implications and not forewarn users!
The reason I blog this is because today I noticed a friend had checked into their parents home. Sounds fine. Only they also tagged and checked in their parents too. Said parents, not being that social media savvy, obviously did not know about Places, or the associated privacy settings. So anyone could pop round, set up their home on Places, check in, tag them too, and all 3 people now have a Facebook update on their walls, saying this is where I live, I am here now. Why is that bad? Well, if you are not social media clued up, you probably haven't played with your privacy settings. So you may not have set your profile to "just friends" instead of anyone and everyone. Which means potentially, anyone can see your profile, see the Places check in and see where you live with pinpoint accuracy on a map. People are so careful with privacy, tearing off their addresses off letters before recycling them and shredding mail so no one sees their personal information, yet they happily check in to geo-location social media at home, telling the world where they live! I'm not saying that Facebook Places, FourSquare and Gowalla are bad... but there's definitely a need for some education on how to use it.
SO... here's a few hints and tips...
- If you are going to use Facebook places, or any other geo-location social media, never ever "check in" at home. If you're checking in at work, Starbucks, your favourite restaurant, that's fine. But if you ALSO check in at home, then people know where you live AND when you're not there. Ok you could argue that it's over cautious, but think about it. Is it really? Do you set a timer on lights when you go out so people think you're in? Yeah. Why? Because you don't want to let rather unsavoury people know that you're not in and the house is empty. So really, it's not that over cautious is it? Don't think that burglars aren't using online mediums for fraud and theft. That's naive. Feel free to check in any other place, just not home.
- Never check in at other people's homes. It's just not polite. Just as some people may not want to touch Facebook Places with a barge pole, so they may similarly not appreciate other people stabbing a huge online pin on top of their home for them. If you REALLY have a need to tell the world you're at Aunty Linda's, make sure they know you're sharing their location with the world first.
- Similarly, don't tag other people. Ok, if the person you are tagging at a location is a prolific Facebook Places user too, then chances are they're not going to care if you share the information that you're both out clubbing or at a bar. But use your judgement.
- Get to know your own privacy settings. If you don't want to get tagged as shopping at Anne Summers for lingerie with your friend unknowingly, change your privacy settings. You can disable the option to allow other people checking you in to locations. Just to go Facebook, click on Account at the top right > Privacy settings > Customise settings. Scroll down to 'Things others can share' and click Edit settings, select Disabled.
- The same for the 'Things I share' section on the same page. Disable the 'Include me in "people are here now" after I check in' option, if you don't want random people who are at the same location as you seeing you in the list of people who are physically at the same location.
It's all common sense really, but with social media, the danger of acting before thinking is all too easy. Look at all the politicians who've been fired after tweeting some disparaging remark about someone.
Anyway, hope the post above helps to clarify what Facebook Places is and what you should and shouldn't do. :)
Comments
I carry a GPS receiver around with me whenever I take my camera out. The two go together. I have many MB of GPS tracklogs covering many trips I've taken from the travels around China, to the train journey to work. I've adopted the following rules for myself.
1) Never tag other people (unless they agree).
2) Check in only when leaving a venue.
3) Never check in at home.
4) Turn off track logging before you get home.
5) Decrease the accuracy of geotagging based on context.
6) Be wary about checking in abroad.
All fairly common sense advice. But, what you may not be aware is that your photos taken on the iPhone are geotagged and time stamped. It is easy to forget to turn Twitter geotagging off. Your location will leak out somehow.
I do believe that over time people will feel more comfortable sharing their real-time location. But that time isn't here yet.
Yes as a rule I have my location services turned off completely on my phone, so photos etc aren't geotagged. I only turn it on when I want to use it specifically, like checking in on foursquare. It drains your battery otherwise!