Wapcaplets

Time to put on the tin-foil hat for a moment. When it comes to mobile computing I’m a bit of a caveman and that’s intentional. My work and my hobbies put me in front of a computer screen a lot so, when I’m away from the computer, I value the time I have being relatively un-tethered. Apart from the odd work-related emergency I use my phone almost exclusively to keep in touch with my wife when we’re in different locations and the bulk of that communication is via SMS.

Global positioning technologies have really grown in leaps & bounds over the past decade and there are some great applications. I smirk when I think that, 15 years ago, my friends and I would actually consult paper road-maps when planning a trip instead of just typing an address in a $200 GPS unit. I laugh out loud when I recall that, at that time, it was illegal for consumer GPS units to be as accurate as they are now over security concerns (disclaimer: I have no reference to cite in relation to my remark of the legality of GPS’ accuracy; I’m making that statement based on anecdotal information told to me by someone who I’d have no reason not to believe).

Being in Canada, we’re sometimes behind the curve in terms of the flavour-of-the-month gadgets and associated web-based services. I had heard about foursquare on shows like TWiT but I never fully understood how it was used until I started seeing posts in my Twitter feed this week from someone I follow. Essentially, you can use Foursquare to “check in” to various locations using your mobile device and, depending on how you have it set up, Twitter will display where you are in very-near-real-time.

I’m pretty open in terms of my online presence and the way I use social network sites. I’m not so cynical as to be of the “privacy is dead” mindset but I firmly believe that individuals need to assume that any information that they put online is out there for the world to see, regardless of any website or services assurances of privacy. Sites like Facebook are businesses out there to make money and they use your information to know which ads to put in front of you. The better they can prove their ads’ efficacy to be the more they can charge other companies to advertise. You can make the argument that Facebook is subversive or underhanded in the way that they handle your so-called “private” information but I have relatively little sympathy for people who claim to have been inconvenienced or “exploited” in this regard. Caveat emptor.

But getting back to Foursquare… like many popular technologies, Foursquare hasn’t really done anything radically new from a technological advancement perspective but rather they have found a way to use existing technology in an innovative way that people like to use. Essentially, they’ve turned where you go into a game where you can earn badges and credentials by going to places the most times, with the most people, going to the most diverse assortment of places, etc. In isolation, I can see how that would be a fun game to play, particularly for hipsters & poseurs wanting to vainly assert their “credibility.” Not my cup of tea but I won’t condemn it as frivolous simply because it’s not something I’d use.

Making your address, e-mail, and phone numbers public is one thing. Those are avenues that someone could use to get in touch with you that you can separate from yourself. You can leave your house, you can close your e-mail client, you can turn off your phone. Even though privacy invasions take place by people knocking at your door, spamming your e-mail account, or cold-calling you at the very least there is some barrier, whether physical (your front door) or technological (the “Close” or “Off” buttons) that can grant an individual privacy when desired. What concerns me about applications like Foursquare is that it’s conditioning people to proactively inform the world where you are at all times. Having an e-mail address or phone number do not, in and of themselves, invite invasions of privacy but broadcasting your precise geographic location is equipping people keen on exploiting you. I won’t even go into full on crackpot mode and say how something like Foursquare will tell the black helicopters where to find you, but I am surprised more burglars aren’t using Foursquare so they know when their marks aren’t home. Home invasions aside, broadcasting where you are at all times will invite a litany of unwanted attention.

As a personal policy, I strive to never update any network status saying where I am “right now.” Any location-specific updates should always be in retrospect (i.e. “I went to this great concert” as opposed to “I’m at this great concert”).