"Foursquare"

“Twitter” is apparently already over the hill, and replacing it is the new website, “Foursquare”. This New York based website is the up and coming social networking site. Like “Twitter” it allows your friends to know what you are up to at any given moment. However, “Foursquare” adds an extra element to the idea of “Twitter”; instead of having the user give a quick summary of what he or she is doing, users of “Foursquare” will “check in” to a city, a bar, or a restaurant, etc. Once your geographical/social status is updated, your friends are sent a message that tells them where you are and what you are doing so that if they are in the same area, they can join you. Through “Foursquare” you can also list the venues that you would like to visit or would recommend that your friends should visit. Another interesting factor that separates “Foursquare” from “Twitter” is that you win points for checking in. A user’s points are displayed on the site and if he or she checks into a location enough times, then they can be named the “mayor” of that establishment.

To capitalize on this site, the creators of “Foursquare” gather the information to potentially sell to businesses that want to get their names out there. This information has great potential to be used for research and advertising.
As a social networking site, “Foursquare” has great potential because it leads to personal contact as opposed to sites that focus on conversation and friendship online. However, many are worried about the privacy implications that go along with broadcasting one’s exact location. At one point, CNN.com referred to this new service “as an invite to have your house robbed”. In addition to leaving one’s physical belongings vulnerable to theft, broadcasting the locations where one will be using one or multiple credit cards could make it even easier for hackers to piece together personal information to sell on the black market of stolen identities. The location information that users of “Foursquare” will provide via “check in” will be time logged, so that information could be helpful to obtaining credit card information if it was compared with the transactions of that evening at any establishment. This site could also be used to keep fraudulent purchases under the radar by matching purchases made with stolen credit card information match the city that the “Foursquare” user is in.

There are many ethical and security implications of adding location to a social networking site as “Foursquare” has done, and it will be interesting to see if people choose to ignore the risk in favor of making more connections.

Sources:
"Privacy is dead, and social media hold smoking gun - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 29 Oct. 2009. .
"What is Foursquare? - Pocket-lint." Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets - Pocket-lint. Web. 29 Oct. 2009. .