The iPhone privacy furor from last week became fuel for today’s comic. Which begs the question: Do people who are actively participating in social networks really want privacy, given how much data they freely release on a regular basis?
Well here is my opinon on this. Facebook, tweets, foursquare. we make the choice to publish our personal information and thus we accept the idea of our info out on the web. vs big brother/apple are effectively stealing our personal information/location.
That’s the thing. They freely release it or not, but at least they’ve got the option.
By the way, I tried foursquare – but I can’t get used to it. I can’t get accostumed to enter a pub and fire the program up and check in – I just ask for my drink and start doing the thing i went to do, be it talking with friends or reading a book or whatever.
Apple has an interesting Q & A page with some details on that… According to that, it’s not tracking the phone’s exact location, just the various cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots near where it goes to cache them for future use.
On the other hand, like others say, with checking on FourSquare and similar stuff, that’s your choice to do it, it’s not happening without you, as a user, clicking the buttons to do it. And it’s your choice to not do it if there’s some place you are that you don’t want to share (e.g. if I was buying a surprise gift for my wife, I wouldn’t want publish that I was in some store where it would be obvious that’s the only reason I was there).
Overall, though, it doesn’t bother me much. Since it’s only really readable on my computer, it wouldn’t show that I’m not home, that file would only have where I’d been before, not where I am at the time, so it’s just “in the past”.
Stoney
April 27, 2011 at 3:07 amWell here is my opinon on this. Facebook, tweets, foursquare. we make the choice to publish our personal information and thus we accept the idea of our info out on the web. vs big brother/apple are effectively stealing our personal information/location.
stygyan
April 27, 2011 at 3:09 amThat’s the thing. They freely release it or not, but at least they’ve got the option.
By the way, I tried foursquare – but I can’t get used to it. I can’t get accostumed to enter a pub and fire the program up and check in – I just ask for my drink and start doing the thing i went to do, be it talking with friends or reading a book or whatever.
Kevin Rubin
April 27, 2011 at 8:50 pmApple has an interesting Q & A page with some details on that… According to that, it’s not tracking the phone’s exact location, just the various cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots near where it goes to cache them for future use.
On the other hand, like others say, with checking on FourSquare and similar stuff, that’s your choice to do it, it’s not happening without you, as a user, clicking the buttons to do it. And it’s your choice to not do it if there’s some place you are that you don’t want to share (e.g. if I was buying a surprise gift for my wife, I wouldn’t want publish that I was in some store where it would be obvious that’s the only reason I was there).
Overall, though, it doesn’t bother me much. Since it’s only really readable on my computer, it wouldn’t show that I’m not home, that file would only have where I’d been before, not where I am at the time, so it’s just “in the past”.