Shea Sylvia, a Kansas City web geek and early adopter of shiny new internet tools, wrote on her blog in July 2010 that she was creeped out while eating at a restaurant with friends — when the hostess came over and told her she had a phone call.
Shea recollected that conversation.
But when I answered the phone, I didn’t recognize the voice on the other end.
“Hello?”
“Hey Shea. This is Brian.”
“Who?”
I racked my brain, trying to figure out who I knew named “Brian”.
“I saw that you checked in there on Foursquare, Shea,” he said.
My heart started to race. I’ve read articles about burglaries and stalking thanks to Foursquare, but because I only occasionally link my check-ins with tweets, I figured I was being responsible. Standing at the front desk of a restaurant on the phone with a complete stranger was the absolute last thing I expected from a harmless tweet about meeting friends from the internet and a link to my location.
“I like to hang out with people from the internet too. Maybe we should hang out sometime. What do you think about that?” Brian asked.
“Ok…” I said unconvincingly.
“Maybe we could ride bikes together.”
“Ok…”
And then he said, “Is this getting creepy?”
“Yeah, this is a little creepy,” I replied, looking around the restaurant, hoping I’d spot someone on their phone. No luck.
“You probably shouldn’t be telling people where you are on Foursquare, should you, Shea?” he said.
I was trying not to cry at this point. And then I hung up.
That blog post led to her retelling it in the Guardian. People insulted her in the comments of both places, and one commenter turned violent when he sent this random girl an email threat about raping her.
Scary stuff.
I recounted Shea’s story last week during a telephone conversation with Boston Globe reporter Beth Teitell, who was researching angles about the rise in location-based social networking sites.
While my interview didn’t make the final cut, Carissa O’Brien‘s was featured.
“My daughter and I were doing the March for Babies walk,’’ said O’Brien, 33, “and when I stopped in at the Mass. General tent at the Hatch Shell, someone said ‘Are you Carissa?’ ’’
“It was a little odd,’’ she said, temporarily forgetting that she had brought the situation on herself. Her first act upon arriving at the fund-raising walk, after all, had been to pull out her smartphone and “check in’’ on Foursquare, a mobile application that lets her tell the world, or at least part of it, where she is, and, thanks to the photo she uploaded, what she looks like.
I’ve met Carissa many times. We were first introduced about a year ago when MC Hammer and Gary Vaynerchuk came to town to talk at the Gravity Summit.
I agree with Steve Garfield (who was also interviewed in Beth’s story) that Foursquare is valuable. I created an account earlier this year, and I have since written about Foursquare many times.
But I deleted my account this week.
I’m hardly alone. Alex Wilhelm, Chris Conrey, Jason Grigsby, and Morgan McLintic are just a few people Google pointed me to who deleted their accounts, too.
I recognize the positive vibes of sharing your location with friends; but even if you make your check-ins private and only friends can see them, if you check-in to a location and someone searches for that location, that person sees you — and whatever photograph and biographical information attached to your profile.
For every Carissa and Steve, I also think of Shea.
There is a benefit for businesses to know their customers, and Foursquare can build customer satisfaction. People are checking into places and sharing their whereabouts with the world.
Geolocation is hot, but I don’t need to have a Foursquare account to evangelize its importance.
Maybe I’ll create an account again in the future. But for now, I’ve had enough. I don’t want the world anymore to know where I am, unless I tell them.
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Yes, conferences are perfect for this sort of thing – I’ve actually gone to a conference I had NO plans on going to, when I noticed 5 of my friends/co-workers were there. Now that’s cool. But on a personal level, I’d never divulge where I am – forget that.
Had a creepy experience as well and deleted my account. Also, do not see any personal value. Would love to see any business values.
One of many business values is an initiative in Durham, North Carolina to spotlight homeless venues — hoping that citizens will visit places where their peers sleep on the street and “check in,” thereby spreading online word of mouth about the poor living conditions. It’s a unique way of using Foursquare.
Thank you for sharing that story! I’m frequent to foursquare, but luckily I check in at places right as I’m leaving. I know a lot of my friends just drive by places to get the check in, without even going in to the establishment.
I read your newer post first about your blog traffic spike but thought I would comment my thoughts on Foursquare.
Not only does location based tracking have the issues you have highlighted here (creepy stalking etc) but imagine the additional information that can be gathered.
Over a year of actively checking into places, a marketing company could almost guess where you were going to be and what you like. If you multiply this information by the thousands of people who use the service it becomes evident where to advertise to certain groups of people.
I don’t like how Facebook is offering a similar service now (automatically on when signing up). As many profiles are open to the public, Facebook location checkin service now gives potential creepy people access to location, bio, friends and what you and your friends have said. Scary times for those who are not quite tech savvy enough.
You shouldnt use apps like that if you donr want to let people know where you are, its a bit silly isnt it?. its like going on a social network and complain that people want to be your freind. it kida defeats the point dosent it?
January 19, 2011 at 6:05 PM
I agree with you, Ari. However, I continue to use it as I search for ways to mine the data that Foursquare is obtaining. That information is gold, and they do offer an API, but it isn’t as robust as I’d like it to be unfortunately.
Maybe I’ll delete my account eventually, but not yet. It doesn’t take as much time to check in as some of your other commentators would have other believe.
I also don’t worry so much about who might stalk me…they can do so if they choose…but I’m not so friendly when approached like that either. Plus, there is always someone at home, and that someone is an ex-marine with a gun fancy. lol I told him to make sure you drag the body inside so you can claim defense.
June 8, 2011 at 3:02 AM
I had the same scary thing once, while using foursquare, and have since indeed not used it anymore. Not sure if I ever will again too!
Is there a difference between an online and offline friend? I mean, when sharing you’re not home or boarding an airplane, you’d tell that to the world?
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