Location, location, location

INTERNET: Wouldn’t it be nice if you always knew where your friends were? A new feature offered by the social networking site Facebook allows users to share instant information on their location with online friends. Sounds like fun, right? But critics of Facebook Places worry that privacy and safety will be compromised.

After you “check in” on your smartphone, the Facebook network will not only be able to locate you, but also to search for you, as it can search shops, clubs or other nearby locations. The new feature is currently available only in the US, where concerns are being raised over individual security.

Rainey Reitman, a spokeswoman for Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, told The Guardian: “Location data is tied to people’s safety — if people know where you are, they know where you’re not. Your location data is some of the most sensitive data we have,” Reitman says. “Don’t post anything online you wouldn’t want to get out publicly to anyone,” she advises.

Facebook product manager Ana Yang defends the new feature, however. “People are already sharing their location on Facebook, so we looked at this to see if we could make it easier, more consistent and more social,” Yang said. To protect the user, Facebook provides complete opt-out of “places” tags.

Rainey Reitman

 "If people know where you are, they know where you're not." 

Users under 18 can share locations only with their closest friends, and the real-time location will be seen only by friends who are at the same location. Still, critics are concerned by the fact that once a user decides to check in at a location, “places” tags are automatically shared with immediate friends.

Facebook is not alone in offering location services. Foursquare and Gowalla, for example, combine locations and recommendations. So does Rummble, a London-based recommendations tool that allows individuals to post recommendations and reviews either online or via mobile phones. “There have been big changes in the way we communicate with brands,” says Rummble founder Andrew Scott. “That has been fuelled by Twitter, which made it credible that people could communicate with brands directly, and Facebook’s ‘like’ button, which made it credible that information could be personalized.”

At the moment, the new Facebook Places is available as an app on the Apple iPhone. Versions for BlackBerry, Android and other smartphones will appear in the next few months.