Facebook launches "Places," geo-location service that's both cool and

Capt.Jack Sparrow said:

Facebook launches "Places," geo-location service that's both cool and creepy

It was perhaps the worst kept secret since, well, Apple’s iPhone 4. Facebook today is announcing a new feature, called Places, that allows users to share their locations with friends - and allows their friends to be updated in real-time.
The goal, of course, is to take the virtual relationships that we’ve recreated with old friends on Facebook and bring them into the physical world, too. And, if you really start to look beyond that, you can imagine the interaction you might have with local businesses who will know that you’re in the area - and might want to entice you into their businesses with a coupon or some other promotion.

More: Facebook launches "Places," geo-location service that's both cool and creepy | ZDNet

I don't like the sound of that at all. It is for that very reason that I don't ever intend to join that type of site. People were already revealing their whereabouts to others thanks to social engineering techniques, this now automates the process in real time.

Barman58 said:

Major issue with this is with Facebook's wonderful security record, it will probably turn into a service for burglars - if they know you're at the pub with the wife - they know there's no-one home

Extremely well stated, Nigel.

I think it's insane, but I still would continue to use Facebook as long as it remains an "extra", and this Places does not become a mandatory part of Facebook.

I think the whole argument over privacy concerns is ridiculous.

It really is this simple:

If you don't want someone you don't know to know where you are.. don't use it.

ALSO, if you aren't going to use it, don't freakin complain about the service lol. Noone is forcing ANYONE to use this, just like noone is forcing ANYONE to post personal info online.

"Someone got my phone number off of facebook and I didn't want them to!"

Well, genius, A. Don't put it on facebook or B. Make that info available to certain people (which facebook makes it super easy to do).

/end rant

Kirsch said:

I think the whole argument over privacy concerns is ridiculous.

It really is this simple:

If you don't want someone you don't know to know where you are.. don't use it.

ALSO, if you aren't going to use it, don't freakin complain about the service lol. Noone is forcing ANYONE to use this, just like noone is forcing ANYONE to post personal info online.

"Someone got my phone number off of facebook and I didn't want them to!"

Well, genius, A. Don't put it on facebook or B. Make that info available to certain people (which facebook makes it super easy to do).

/end rant

Very well put.

Kirsch said:

I think the whole argument over privacy concerns is ridiculous.

It really is this simple:

If you don't want someone you don't know to know where you are.. don't use it.

ALSO, if you aren't going to use it, don't freakin complain about the service lol. Noone is forcing ANYONE to use this, just like noone is forcing ANYONE to post personal info online.

"Someone got my phone number off of facebook and I didn't want them to!"

Well, genius, A. Don't put it on facebook or B. Make that info available to certain people (which facebook makes it super easy to do).

/end rant

I agree with not putting up any information that you don't intend to use, but given Facebook's history of enabling any new features by default I'm not sure how many users would even know about the feature and even if they know about the feature, how many would know that it is enabled by default.
(phew, that was a long sentence)

Barman58 said:

Major issue with this is with Facebook's wonderful security record, it will probably turn into a service for burglars - if they know you're at the pub with the wife - they know there's no-one home

True !
Here few examples :
Facebook will never get privacy right | ZDNet
Facebook does not erase user-deleted content | ZDNet
Facebook breach: user phone numbers exposed but who's to blame? | ZDNet
zestyping: The new Facebook API exposes the events that some users attend to anyone on the Internet.

Well it's just for the iPhone Facebook app at the moment. I for one am definitely not using it when the Android Facebook app gets the update.