6 Abuses for Facebook Places

Facebook just added a check-in or location-sharing feature, much like the one provided by FourSquare.com. The feature is designed to accomplish three main tasks:

• Help people share where they are in a social context
• See which friends are near by
• Discover nearby places and new places through friends’ profiles

But, by default, it also allows your friends to tag and publicize your location for you. It’s like being tagged in a photo, except the other person gets to share your location instead of your picture (even if you don’t want others to know where you are, and even if you are not there).

Here are some of the rarely discussed ways that Facebook Places will be used (now or in the future) that you might want to think about before checking in:

1. Facebook will sell (share) your current location and profile to stores in your vicinity so that they can server you hyper-targeted advertising (e.g., here’s a coupon for the store you are about to enter).
2. Friends who aren’t actually your friends will be able to check you in to questionable Places even when you are not there (the practical jokes for the Check Friends In feature are limitless)

Posted in Identity Theft, Social Media by Identity Theft Expert John Sileo.

Tags: Facebook, Geo Tagging, Location-Sharing, Places, Privacy, Sileo