When Location Information Goes Social

Author: Anthony Lapwood
Date: 25 February 2010

Tags: Webstock, Kevin Rose, Digg, Foursquare, Please Rob Me

Last week I was interested to hear a prediction made by one of the 24 international speakers at Webstock - a conference held in Wellington on all things web - on what the 'next big thing' in web will be.

Kevin Rose, founder of the popular news aggregation website Digg, was at Webstock to deliver 10 tips for new web entrepreneurs. During question time Kevin was asked, 'What's the next big thing in web?' and his response - location-based services.

The United States-based social location service Foursquare was mentioned more than once during the conference. Foursquare allows people to use their mobile to 'check-in' to a place they go to, such as a restaurant, announcing their whereabouts to friends. By doing this, people earn points and badges. If someone checks-in enough times to a certain place, they can even become 'mayor' of that place.

For some businesses, Foursquare is a useful tool in building customer loyalty. The mayor of their restaurant may, for example, be awarded discounts.

However, there are also significant risks in being too free with announcing information such as one's personal whereabouts. Stuff.co.nz has published an article about a website called Please Rob Me, which is designed to expose the risk of people announcing where they currently are - or, more to the point, where they are not (ie at home) - based on information they willingly release through sites like Foursquare. The website acts as a satirical warning about over-sharing personal information through the web.

Clearly, location information can be used to create some interesting social web services that many find engaging and fun. But there is also a strong need to properly educate people around the risks of releasing personal information through the internet.

So, do web-based social location services offer enough tools and information to help manage the potential risks raised by a site like Please Rob Me? What could be done to help people more safely share personal location information? Or do you think that everything that can be done is being done already? Post your comments below.

Anthony Lapwood

Communications Coordinator
Land Information New Zealand