The creepiest social mobile app yet violates the little privacy you thought you had left.
At a telecom event in the late 90s, someone showed me a funny Euro-phone that could display on the screen exactly where all your friends were. Using it, you could drop in on them if you were in the vicinity.
I immediately said this was for stalking.
The demo, and others like it, was part of a trend toward simplifying stalking. It humiliated the Americans in the audience because it was clear that the United States was at the back of the pack when it came to cell phone technology. Although we are no longer behind because of the changed the landscape, the stalking trend continues. It has finally come to a head with the Russian-designed Girls Around Me app.
Using data from Facebook, Foursquare, and other social networks, your smartphone can bring up pictures of the nearby women that stupidly publish what they are doing and where they are doing it.
But then what? It would be extremely creepy to stroll up to any of these women and say hello. What can you say?
"Hi, Jennifer! I've been following you." Seems unlikely to work.
"Hey Jenn, can I call you that? Have you seen this app?" Dweebish.
"Is your name Jennifer? I think I know you!" Getting closer, and more onerous.
Combine all the public info and we have this winning dialogue:
Stalker: Wow! Jennifer Taylor from Dayton? Dayton High Dust Devils! Your mom is Julie? I think I was in your math class!
Jennifer: Really? You look kind of old to have graduated in 2005. Who are you?
Stalker: No really. I had a skin condition. I'm really, uh, 23!
Jennifer: You look 40.
Stalker: No, really.
Jennifer: HELP! POLICE!
Ok, so that didn't go so well. This whole idea of free and open personal information is sketchy, to say the least, and it really does not accomplish anything. When you publish something to a social network, imagine adding "so I'm better than you," at the end of any post or check-in. How does it make you sound? It makes you sound like a jerk. Now, ask yourself what you sound like anyway. "Oh, I'm having the best bourbon at the Money Bar. It's great to be out having fun."
All this sharing is fine and good, to a point. The point, however, has long since been passed thanks to Facebook and other systems that to easily allow stalkers and nosy government agencies to know too much. And yes, at some point, the information will end up in the hands of insurance companies that will deny you coverage or jack up your rates because you've shown yourself to be too risky. You eat too much or you drink too much—they'll use any excuse to run up your bill.
The potential for bad actors—you know, criminals—to get into the scene is the real threat here. This insanity will end only after a series of burglaries, rapes, and even murders by creeps using social networks for real stalking.
The column is over. Now go check in someplace and get a valuable badge or something. What fun!
You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.
More John C. Dvorak:
• FAIL: Girls Around Me
• E-mail Etiquette Part II: CCing and BCCing
• E-mail Etiquette Part I: The End-of-Thread Dilemma
• United States Losing the "War on Hackers"
• Watching Sony Slide
• more
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