Facebook Places (previously referred to as Facebook Location) was launched last night and it's no surprise that with it come many privacy concerns from Facebook users. The American Civil Liberties Union has responded to the new feature saying that they are not impressed with the privacy controls. Facebook Places allows your friends to find your location easily, but the ACLU says it's not so easy to opt-out.
The option to opt-out requires you to seek out the option by heading to privacy settings followed by customise (the feature is already on and you don't turn it on yourself). Letting people tag your location can lead to various problems, but Facebook says you need Facebook Places on for people to do this and you can easily reject any check-in you're not comfortable with.
The ACLU has also brought up issues with the People here and now feature which shows which Facebook users are currently at a location. The concern is that anyone can find you and you can't control it, but Facebook has again responded by saying there is a drop down menu in the privacy options which lets you control exactly who sees you.
ACLU's final concerns are that applications are can tap into your location data. This again though, can be easily sorted by changing your application settings making sure they aren't being intrusive on your personal information.
So in the end, although there are privacy concerns for Facebook Places, there is a lot of control for users, but with so many users and no obvious explanations from Facebook on how to do this there is sure to be a lot of unhappiness from this new feature.
Are you going to opt-out or are you perhaps not really bothered by this new feature? Leave your thoughts below.
Via: Electric Pig
5 thoughts on “Facebook Places Comes With Expected Privacy Concerns”
it looks like a brilliant addition to the Facebook family!
I live in the UK and updated my Facebook app this morning. I read about this Places feature on the Appstore. I thought cool a new feaure. I loaded the app and clicked on the Places icon to be told that it wasn’t available in my region. Damn and blast. lol.
So I don’t really know what it does yet. I may read up on it later. Being tech savvy I can take an educated guess and I presume that it will post your current location along with your status update? Or there will be a Google-Map-type affair with a little dot representing each person using it and their location when they sumbitted their status update? I don’t think the dots will actually move around the map like akin to the Marauders Map (Harry Potter) although I’m sure a time will come lol.
I don’t understand the problem with this? My Twitter client has this feature – to post my GPS location along with my Tweet should I want it to? Also the first time you use the Places feature on an iPhone, the phone advises you if you want to allow the app access to your location? So, if you don’t want it to use it, disable it. Simple :)
True paul, it does seem like a bit of an overreaction from the ACLU. It’s just Facebook doesn’t tend to make all its features and their workings too obvious which I guess is their main problem.
I can’t wait to use it tbh.
To be able to see where my Facebook Freinds are submitting their status messages would be cool.
If it keeps the history of their locations it may be possible by a stalker to track someone’s movements; but who cares? Personally I don’t mind if someone knows that I update my stauts on a street, or at work, or on the bus, or whilst I’m sat on the toilet. It would’t bother me in the slightest. The only drawback would be is that if your boss checked your facebook profile and it showed you in Birmingham when you should be off sick at home in Manchester – for example hehe. But then again if you have your boss on your friends list, more fool you ;)
My only problem with it is that people know when your not home, leaving you vulnerable to being burgled. Even though friends can see you if you fail to change your settings then friends of friends and so on can see