Cyberstalking And Location-Based Services

Jezebel has an unsettling story on the dark side of social media, particularly with regards to the popular location-based social network, Foursquare. In a recent incident, blogger Shea Sylvia was stalked by a stranger who got to know of her location because of a check-in she made on Foursquare. Fortunately for her, it was only a phone call by the stalker after which she never heard from him, but this and several other such incidents do force you to wonder if social media can become too social sometimes.

From Jezebel:

And yet services like Foursquare are supposed to do this, at least in part: Create a kinship between people who use the same services and share the same spaces but might never speak. That’s why people opt in to it, though that sense of real-time lack of privacy is exactly why I’ve stayed away from it, however enthusiastically I’ve embraced other social media. Every Internet user negotiates how much personal information to share and how and when, but I would argue that for women, the situation is far more volatile, the vulnerability more terrifying. And once you invite people into an aspect of your private life in any sort of public way, it’s difficult to order them out.

Jezebel: “When Foursquare Gets Creepy”