Posted on 08/27/2010 12:34:49 PM PDT by libertarian27
Well yeah, that's this week, what about next....;)
I don't have a FB account but was on another site where people were freaking out about this new location grabber. There's bound to be a good horror/thriller based on this tech - coming to a theater near you....
I have a fake-name Facebook account, never did finish signing in until now. Checked the location, it has me at the DSL Central Office (about 2.5 miles from where I really am)!
I did a little snooping on myself just for kicks. My work pc logs in from 2 different states, home only 1 place, and my cell. It was able to pickup only my cell locations but only if I made a posting.
I suppose if you spend enough time on FB and click every link you come across it will eventually pick up your location
Agreed if my little test was representative. When connected via DSL, the granularity of location accuracy seems to be "which city are you in"? (Could be significant for Tiger Woods and crooked Chicago politicians)
Well, I’m not the most techincally saavy, but how would it know where you were without a GPS. Cell phones have them, I think, but your computer doesn’t. At least I think it doesn’t.
Notifications are normally for that. However, they used it to control whether your friends can set your location, among other things.
This whole thing is much ado about nothing. It only posts your location if you choose to “Check-In”. If you never “Check-In” no one will ever know. Secondly, if you choose to check in, it only is visible to your friends
This is FB’s answer to Four Square.
I don’t believe that article is accurate.
Are you sure about it working over a phone connection only? I’m at a coffee shop using their wifi on my iPad and the Facebook app asks if it can use the location for Places.
At least it gave me the option of saying no (my iPad doesn’t have 3G).
Are you sure about it working over a phone connection only? I’m at a coffee shop using their wifi on my iPad and the Facebook app asks if it can use the location for Places.
At least it gave me the option of saying no (my iPad doesn’t have 3G).
I’m still not seeing Places, though those notifications are in there. But those instructions won’t turn off Places (whatever it actually is) it will just turn off e-mail notifications FROM Places.
I dunno if iPads have GPS technology built in.
And once again we learn the luddites spread fear and panic without basis in reality. Here’s the meat of the feature:
“People who have the Facebook app on their smartphone.
Right now it’s available only for the iPhone, but Facebook says versions for the Android system and BlackBerry are coming soon. Currently, iPhone users will see the Places option when they download the latest update to the Facebook app.
There’s technically a way to check in using a laptop or desktop computer, but it’s hard to imagine many people will go to the trouble unless they’re surfing the web in a coffee shop.
If you don’t use Facebook on your phone, Places probably won’t change your Facebook use in any way — except that your news feed may start showing when your friends check in.
What about my privacy?
Lots of readers are expressing concerns that the app will take away their privacy by letting others (including, in the scariest scenarios, stalkers or crooks) — know their location.
Some important facts about that:
• If you don’t choose to check in, your location isn’t revealed. It seems basic, but there appears to be a lot of confusion about this. Nothing about Facebook Places (and Foursquare and other mobile apps, for that matter) tells people where you are if you don’t choose to tell them.
• The default setting for Facebook Places only sends location alerts to your Facebook friends. There are ways to change that (we’ll talk about changing your settings later) to tell more, or fewer, people. But as is, no one you haven’t approved as a friend can see what you post.
• When you’re with a group, Facebook friends can check you in along with themselves to let people know what kind of group is hanging out. But Facebook says they’ll only be able to do so if you have checked yourself in at the same place. In other words, nobody can post your “check-in” location without your approval (although as always, they could still mention your whereabouts in a status update).
Important detail: If you’re not comfortable with all your friends’ friends seeing where you are, you can adjust your settings to prevent that, too. Otherwise, if you both check in somewhere, their friends can see your location.
• Your check-ins likely will appear in the activity stream on the Facebook Places page for your location — unless you change your settings. (Again, details to come.) So other people who were nearby might be able to see you as well as your friends.”
So anybody that’s not using the FB app on an iPhone and/ or doesn’t check in will be feeding data into Places. People really need to learn to be less prone to panic.
So did they develop this feature to help Palin’s neighbor stalk her more efficiently? No more looking out the curtains down into her back yard to see if she’s home.
Wow, a non-FB'er posting an article about a possible intrusive FB app is now a Luddite?....Let's smash those looms!
No an article blatantly LYING about what an app does is a Luddite. All the “warning” articles say this app is automatically on and publishing where you are whenever you hit FB, that is a blatant anti-technology lie, that’s is classic Luddite BS.
"Same way as in a small town of Hua in South Vietnam; several thousands of Vietnamese were executed in one night when the city was captured by [the] Viet Cong for only two days; and American CIA could never figure out - how could [the communists] possibly know each Individual, where he lives, where to get him; and [in order that they] would be arrested in one night basically in four hours before dawn, put on a van, driven out of the city limits and shot.The answer is very simple. Long before communists occupy the city, there was extensive network of informers; local Vietnamese citizens who knew absolutely everything about people who are instrumental in public opinion - including Barbers and Taxi Drivers. Everyone who was sympathetic to United States was executed. Same thing was done under the guidance of the Soviet Embassy in Hanoi, and same thing I was doing in New Delhi. To my horror, I discovered that in the files were people who were doomed to execution. There were names of pro-Soviet Journalists, with whom I was personally friendly..."
I asked them how joining FB was a BFOQ when I was already a member of LinkedIn.
They couldn't give me an answer, and I am still not a member of FB.
I will fight FB to the last!
>>I was literally forced into it at work,
Interesting. What is their supposed reasoning?
This is what I gathered from what I read. I think people are in far more potential danger from the stupid things they post on FB, such as vacation photos while they are out of town. Or drunk photos of themselves that may find their way to an employer.
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