A new website,
pleaserobme.com, has pointed out that using the
mobile service
foursquare.com does leave you very vulnerable to
criminals if you use it together with Twitter.
The idea of Foursquare is that you show your friends
where you are at any given moment and which places you have
visited that you recommend to them. This means that you also
let know when you are at home, giving your friends your home
address. So far this is a great service and there does not
seem to be any problem with it.
Twitter
However, the site allows you, or better said pushes you
to connect to your Facebook and Twitter account, thus
getting more friends involved. With Facebook there will in
general be no problem, as most people do close there account
for all people other than their friends, thus showing the
same information to the same people. Connecting your
Foursquare account to Twitter though, sends all your
Foursquare messages and where you are out into the world,
because Twitter accounts are open to everyone.
Pleaserobme
The website pleaserobme has just made a list of all people
announcing their whereabouts and home address this way. It
is clear that Foursquare is not pleased and have denounced
the pleaserobme website.
Common sense
In the end it is like I said before in this blog: you need
to use your common sense and be aware that everything you do
online gets out into the open one way or another. I would
suggest you go and enjoy Foursquare, but do not connect it
to your Twitter account and try to hide your home address.
How to do that last thing I still need to find out, but I
will certainly create a short description as soon as I have.
- How do you feel about Foursquare? do you use it?
what is your experience?
