Why, Why, WHY do people think location apps like Foursquare are a good and safe idea? WHY?
It drives me absolutely insane to see these Tweets come through my stream:
Or:
First of all. The normal person DOES NOT CARE that you are at the bank or Target. We really don’t. So why clog up twitter and facebook with your mundane, useless information? It’s rude and obnoxious.
Second, the ONLY reason I might care that you are at the bank is if I AM YOUR STALKER. Then, by all means. I want to know where you are. I appreciate the address. Because this just makes my stalking job that much easier. And I really love knowing you are at the bank because then I can ROB you.
Do people really think that location applications like Foursquare are good ideas? I know you can earn some coupons, but are some freebies really worth your safety? Your child’s safety??
Um, I think not.
So please, enlighten me. If you DO use Foursquare…WHY? What is so great that you jeopardize your safety like that?
Welcome to OhRheally?, My name is Rhea and I share stories of life raising 3 sons, my experiences as a (recently retired) 
Not at all!!!! I have them turned off on my phone, my twitter, etc. and my son’s phone. No way do I want you to know where I am at every given second!!
They bug me too. I also recently found out about GPS info being embedded in pics (that really bugs me with blogs, but especially “real time” uploading to twitter, etc…). I told my husband to make sure that’s turned off on his phone since he’s always taking pics of the kids.
Oh, yeah. And your phone will do it automatically if you’re not paying attention. My phone always asks “XYZ wants to use your location…” I’m all…um..no.
Things like this is just making it easier on the crazies.
I was just saying this to Matt the other day. I have no idea why anyone would want to announce where they are every minute of the day. If someone wanted to find and hurt you, this would make it very easy on them.
we touched on this before and I agree with you on all counts. TOTALLY OBNOXIOUS. And stupid too.
I agree with Heather since we’ve talked about this before (you, Heather and I) I think it’s dangerous. adam and I were talking about it the other day and I don’t get it. With instagram, it asks me to use my location. I click no, but I DID on one picture, one that I took at Bloorview since it was already in my facebook status and such. It didn’t make me feel comfy though. I will never disclose my actual location or my kids schools or anything again.
No, it’s not just you. And I absolutely cringe when I see military wives talking about how their husbands are deployed, and then are using foursquare or another location based app. Now, I do use Whrrl for certain shops (as required by one group I’m in), but it’s always after the fact, usually by a day or more. PERSEC people.
In the army we have to practice opsec. We were told if we say where they are they may not return. We tend to be vague about where we are going until we have gone and come home. Sometimes we do teaser post on my site as where are going or what we are doing. Generally when we do those it becasue we have group of people going with us. Now I do have a pole up about you pick we travel. It started as our family. We never announced the date of the four day weekend. Can it be found yes. We also have four other families that have decided to play along with us.
I don’t do the I am here for the fact after moving to Germany it has been pressed into our skulls not safe. Did I do this before we left the US yes but generally in connection with a post for a sponsor.
I do strongly agree it was a dumb move on our part. Will I do it nope. I will remain vague until we have done our travels.
You’re absolutely right, Rhea, I don’t even have a public LinkedIn profile because they won’t let me use a pseudonym. I don’t want random people on the web knowing where I am or where I live. That FourSquare stuff and all apps like them are dangerous. Someone will end up hurt or killed because some psycho found them by following the location stream.
Okay, I am a culprit and I use Foursquare. I mainly use it because my best friend has it and we like to share local spots like restaurants that we are at. The Foursquare App also has a feature of getting badges and becoming the mayor of certain spots. On the app you can add tips, say for a restaurant and add pictures. Such as, try the Lasagna here it rocks and add a picture.
For me, I don’t normally check in until I am ready to leave, just in case of stalkers.
Well, I won’t hold it against you
But you could always just text your friend about your new favorite local spots. Or I post on Facebook, I have every privacy setting in place possible so just my allowed friends can see it and not strange creepers.
Also, do you get something special for being the Mayor?