Foursquare and its geolocation game counterpart Gowalla were, from what I hear, all the rage at South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) this year. While I haven’t tried Gowalla — months ago they only had an iPhone app and I haven’t been interested in checking back — I am an avid Foursquare user, potentially to my own peril. Peril, you say? Of course. Any time you take to a social network you give up some of your privacy. This is especially true when using a social network that’s sole purpose is to tell your friends where you are at any given time.
While it’s true that the only way to ensure social network privacy is not to use social networks, there are still millions of people like me who flock to them every day for one reason or another. Specifically to Foursquare, there are a few items that I’ve written about before that deserve calling out after reports of mass lack of user awareness surfaced around SXSWi.
That said, Foursquare is a fun game and gaining points and earning badges is something that brings a smile to the faces of many Web geeks. However, don’t go in blind. Three things to consider:
I’m The Mayor
If you check into a venue more than any other person during a set period of time you become the “mayor” of said location. In busier metropolitan or Web-savvy areas, this usually means that you are at this location a lot because there’s so much check-in competition. While only your friends can see where you are at any given time, ANYONE who figures out your Foursquare user name can pull up your individual profile page and view the places of which you are mayor. This means, anyone smart enough might be able to figure out your most frequented hangouts and maybe even the times you are there (consider a bar, a dinner location, a gym, etc.). Combine this with information from Twitter (”going to my weekly girls night out!”) and who needs PleaseRobMe.com? A little patience and paying attention could eventually yield positive results for whichever creepy person is watching your profile.
I’m In The Room!
This is an issue I’ve been talkingwhining about for months now. One of the features of Foursquare is the ability to be seen on a list of “Who’s Here?” when checking into a venue. Lots of people have impromptu Foursquare meet-ups this way. Some people may not know that checking in puts them on this list, so I hope they are reading this blog post. In other words, I check in at my local Starbucks and settle in to do some work. Someone else — a stranger, perhaps — arrives not long after me and checks in. If I don’t have this setting disabled (thanks, Foursquare, for the foresight) then he or she will see “Jennifer L. is here” when they check in. If that person is intrusive, he or she might seek me out. Suddenly that person can reach my profile, figure out where else I hang out, and so on. Is it a stretch? Maybe. Though I do know of some people who have had this happen and then immediately changed their settings.
