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> | Under Second Review | | | Taking Your Online Social Network Into the Streets
-- By BradleyMullins - 12 Dec 2009 | |
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< | I’ve been a member of plenty of social networking websites, but have never questioned the effect these sites have had on my real-life friendships. With the transition of social networking to the mobile phone, however, comes a new opportunity: now not only can I know what things my friends are doing, but I can know where they are doing them. Location-based social networking presents an interesting dilemma: is a new opportunity for socialization worth broadcasting my whereabouts? | >
> | I’ve been a member of plenty of social networking websites, but have never questioned the effect these sites have had on my real-life friendships. With the transition of social networking to the mobile phone, however, comes a new opportunity: now not only can I know what things my friends are doing, but I can know where they are doing them. Yet Location-based social networking is not constrained merely to interactions among friends – some see it as having the great potential to operate as a convenient dating service, aligning potential mates not only by shared interests, but also by physical proximity. Some of these services, such as Skout operate simply: users are shown basic profiles that include the pictures of other members and a measurement of how far away the other members are from the user. A user is then able to initiate private conversation, as well send a more specific location. Other services, such as the UK’s StreetSpark, allow users to create more detailed profiles, which facilitates the ranking of potential mates’ compatibilities. One such service in particular has garnered a significant amount of media attention: Grindr.
The Appeal of Grindr | | | | |
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< | Making Offline Connections Using an Online Network | >
> | Grindr is a GPS-enable social-networking service geared towards gay men (a version intended to be more inclusion of all orientations, however, is envisioned for the future). iPhone users are able to activate the service, whereupon a number of other users will appear. For each of these users, Grindr displays how many feet away that potential hookup is standing, along with a picture, a tagline, relevant characteristics such as age, height, and weight, and often a declaration of interest (some stated in more graphic terms than others). | | | | |
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< | Location-based social networking offers a number of benefits. It allows a user to meet people in her area, quickly find information about her location, or just let her friends know where she is. Tweets can now be geotagged, so when a user is letting the world know how strenuously she is studying at Starbucks, one of her “followers” walking nearby can stop in and buy her a latte. Location-based social networking can also be used more proactively. foursquare, thought by some to be the next social networking king, allows users to set up real-life meetings with friends, all while playing a virtual game in which users can earn points and unlock badges by “checking-in” at various locations. Through this “check-in” process, a foursquare user tells friends where she is, and also gives them personal tips about that location. By being the most frequent visitor to a particular location, a foursquare user can become the “mayor” of that location, earning bragging rights and maybe even a free drink. | >
> | The founder of Grinder describes the goals of the service as relatively benign: to harness the power of the phone to allow users to escape their solitary lives, imposed by technology, and “reacquaint ourselves with our community.” Yet the obvious reality of Grindr is less broad. It is less a tool of social inclusiveness than a way to find a quick hookup with going through the hassle of posting a Craigslist ad. While such a service certainly holds an appeal to some segment of the population (and a quick survey of users in the Morningside Heights would indicate that its appeal is not limited by age or ethnicity), the enormous privacy concerns accompanying Grindr’s use seem to have been lost in most discussions about it. | | | | |
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< | Yet location-based social networks need not only benefit a user’s friends – they can also be used for completely selfish reasons. Recording a location through a social network can help a user remember her past travels. Google’s Latitude takes this one step further with its Location History feature, an opt-in service that keeps a full history of all of every location a user visits. Google Latitude could be an especially valuable tool for assisting a user trying to find that wallet lost after an epic night out, by directing the user back to the last few establishments she stumbled into the previous evening. | >
> | Privacy in the Grindr World | | | | |
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< | Location-based social networking also has the potential to operate as a convenient dating service, aligning potential mates not only by shared interests, but also by physical proximity. Services such as Skout and Grindr operate simply: users are shown basic profiles that include the pictures of other members and a measurement of how far away the other members are from the user. A user is then able to initiate private conversation, as well send a more specific location. Other services, such as the UK’s StreetSpark, allow users to create more detailed profiles, which facilitates the ranking of potential mates’ compatibilities. | >
> | Grindr is essentially a tool for finding a sexual encounter among nearby strangers. Ignoring the fact that physically proximity is hardly a great indicator of sexual compatibility, Grindr also places sex, something that at least used to be considered a fairly private activity, in a very public sphere. It is therefore surprising that, in reviewing a number of articles about Grindr and similar services, only one actually raised privacy concerns. | | | | |
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< | Keeping Location Private | >
> | The privacy concerns associated with Grindr come in numerous forms. One is associated with all location-based services: personalized advertising based on a user’s location. Many services intend to profit by providing advertisers with information about users’ locations, thereby allowing the advertisers to send deals based on that location. Grindr’s privacy policy explicitly allows this, although it claims to only share aggregate information unlike to specific users’ Device Information Codes (“DIC”). Still, it may be quite disturbing to see a lunch special from a local restaurant appear based on the fact that you are searching for a quick hookup in the area.
A second privacy concern relates to the misuse of the information provided by Grindr to other users. (stalking, personal information, complacency, chat roulette, constitutional protections) | | | All of the above mentioned location-based social networks present privacy concerns. All also attempt to alleviate these concerns in some way. For services like foursquare, which are primarily directed more towards sharing location with an already-established group of friends, the privacy concerns may be less substantial. Foursquare allows users to go “off-the-grid,” meaning that friends will be able to see that a user has “checked-in” at a certain time, but not the user’s location. Interestingly enough, however, foursquare’s privacy policy does not once mention users’ location information. While foursquare does generally promise not to sell users’ “personal information,” it leaves open the ability to distribute users’ locations. This is clearly beneficial to foursquare, as it intends to make it profit by facilitating advertising between businesses and nearby foursquare users. Users, however, may find it obtrusive, not to mention creepy, to be presented with a new offer every time they walk by the local Pizza Hut. |
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