2010 will be the year of location
If you have been reading all the predictions for the new year you will have noticed that location based services feature predominately. The main players at the moment are services like Forsquare, Loopt and Gowalla but wih GSM technology becoming more omnipresent geolocation is becoming an integral part of social media and services like Twitter already have geolocation as an API so as developers can build apps around your location and you can expect Facebook to also join the party over the coming year. So all the signs are pointing towards 2010 being the year of geolocation.
The huge push towards this sort of technology with billions of dollars being invested is of course being driven by potential profits and more specifically by potential advertising dollars. Sure knowing where your friends are at any particular time is useful and fun but the real reason people are so excited about this is because of the hyper targeted way in which companies and brands can target their consumers.
My Reservations
I have played around with both Gowalla and Foursquare and can see the appeal. They are fun and reward based and all the early adoptors are on there at the moment. I have one major issue with them though…I really don’t want people to know where I am! I don’t even want my friends to know my exact location at times never mind a couple of thousand “friends” on Twitter. I mean no disrespect to my real world or offline friends but some things are private. We have all been in the position where we have told a little white lie to friends so as to avoid a night out or to skip a social occasion that didn’t take our fancy. I share enough of my life already through Twitter and Facebook and that is about as far as I feel comfortable going. I know the settings etc can be controlled and filters put in place but I just don’t feel comfortable carrying around a device that maps my location and plots my co-ordinates on an ongoing basis and I certainly don’t want children (who are most likely to embrace the location based games) to have their whereabouts made public. I know the safety controls and preventative measures will all be in place but those same measures are in place on existing web services and those routinely get hacked.
It Can Be Manipulated
I met a guy who was developing a location based social networking client for mobile in the UK recently and he said that his wife used to use it to see what he was up to and to track his movements. This is exactly the same way in which you could see parents using the services to track their kids. He had a very simple way around the system though…He would say he was going over to a friend’s house to watch football. Once there he would simply leave his phone on the couch and the two of them would head out for a wild night on the tiles with his wife non the wiser as the phone indicated that he had not moved an inch (could this same principle be used for more devious alibis?).
Huge Business
All of the big boys have their eyes set on this market and as I have stated in the past this is a battle that Google will ultimately win. They have been broadening their small business listings over the last 12 months and with their Android platform they have made a clear statement of intent about the direction in which they say advertising heading in. As more and more of us have small portable computers in our pockets (iPhones, Droids etc are in my opinion computers that happen to have a phone attached) our ability to search for products and services, researching them in great detail and the getting recommendations from our friends has increased dramatically. Allowing brands and services to know our exact location (and all the other profile info services like Google and Facebook have on us) is like a wet dream for marketers and it will shape the advertising industry for the next 10 years in my opinion.
It is an exciting time but I really do worry about the huge privacy implications that this poses and the potential for people to manipulate the data. I for one have no intention of playing games to reveal my exact location to everybody on an ongoing basis as It just doesn’t appeal to me at all but I know that many tech savvy people already do and see no issue with doing so. I will however be sitting on the sidelines watching where you all drink, eat, shop and sleep and seeing how the whole industry unfolds over the next couple of years.
Do you have concerns over your privacy?
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Am I wrong, but these apps don’t automatically update or track your location like a device planted in your jacket in the spy movies, flashing a red dot when you move on a device held by your other half/parents.
I was sceptical, though having seen others use it I see the purpose in them. It only updates when you select ‘check-in’ (though I’m not so sure about Locle, it seems to do it automatically when you open the app which I don’t like), and I’m not going to be checking-in at my own house, my friends house, my parents house etc. But it becomes useful when at the coffee shop, shopping centre, event, concert, hotel, bar, restaurant, train station etc. And I also see the value in the tips – best coffee, details of wi-fi, disabled access at a concert venue and so on.
If you’re concerned about your privacy then don’t update when you don’t want people to know where you are. Simple.
Yeah most of them are check in only but some do run all the time. The issue I would have is lets say you are using it in Belfast, small enough city and I see you checking in somewhere for a coffee, before you know it I could pop around the corner and I could be the last person you want to see right at that moment. Of course like you say just don’t check in but my own personal preference is to not use them at all so as nobody ever knows. There are of course some cool benefits like seeing what other people think but I am happy enough using plain old review sites for those sorts of things. Glad you are not checking in at home
Things would be bad if it ever got to the stage where people felt that had to check in virtually to their own houses every day!
I don’t see the use for these sort of devices. I agree with you Niall. I don’t want everyone to know where I am because I want to be able to choose who I meet and where, instead of people just barging in. It’s not so cool to have to tell everyone to bugger off
Yeah that is the exact problem Henri. I have visions of me being in a restaurant in town and checking in and then a load of people I really don’t want to see coming in and saying hi and there being an awkward moment! Maybe I am over reacting a little but thats what I fear
Here’s my current thinking:
1. I don’t check in anywhere I’m not in the mood to socialize.
2. foursquare (at least) has privacy options.
3. Huge opportunity in this space for creating applications for refining privacy.
4. Sadly, even after checking in all over San Francisco Bay Area, I can’t honestly say anyone has actually approached me as a result. I’m not sure whether I should be relieved or depressed.
5. For me, anything I can do that increases my social skills is good. Which means handling emotionally uncomfortable and socially awkward situations.
6. Sometimes, I just leave my phone at home. Solves all sorts of problems.
6.1 I don’t feel the need to answer my phone on demand, thus my ringer is turned off, permanently. My friends are cool with this.
Good article. The future is scary.
Dave it sounds like everybody is happy with the settings on Foursquare and the fact that you can just leave your phone at home if you don’t want to be found. It’s not just services like Foursqayre but tons of others all asking for your location and I am worried that we all just end up forgetting about the provacyy settings like we have on other non location based social networks. The future is indeed very scary, but exciting as well!
[...] where the fear or security element may creep in. (See Niall H’s post from earlier today on privacy concerns ovre geolocation servies). A recent Christmas dinner with Keith, John and Frank Bradley arose conversation of social media [...]
“It Can Be Manipulated
I met a guy who was developing a location based social networking client for mobile in the UK recently and he said that his wife used to use it to see what he was up to and to track his movements.”
Dude that isn’t a problem with the location based services/privacy, that’s a problem with the relationship.