to think privacy and "social media" are not good bedfellows?

[NetworkGuy]

FourSquare tracks your position and can post updates to Facebook and Twitter, and it seems some (young) people share their diary on FB, so whether they are home or out at a gig or festival, down the pub, etc, the world and his wife can know... or they are more careful and use privacy settings, in which case their so-called friends might be culprits (or let slip their plans)...

*> News item

YANBU Privacy and social media are polar opposites. I think posting anything remotely private or sensitive on FB is the equivalent of taking out a massive advertising hoarding. Big mistake. Not surprised in the slightest that criminals are finding ways to exploit everyone's naivety.

Not sure that "everyone" is naive, but can see a future when insurance policy documents have a pile of extra "small print" that would exclude cover if a person, their partner, or anyone living in, or staying at, the property, communicates their location by means of SMS or internet, allowing it to be determined that they were no longer at the property...

So if someone with FourSquare on their iPhone happened to visit Hyde Park Corner or Euston Station, or wherever... and it was logged on Twitter or Facebook, house insurance claim might be in jeopardy...

Huge fan of social media, esp facebook, but have high privacy settings, and still NEVER check-in anywhere, or announce holidays until I'm back.

I have people on my twitter who post their every movement via foursquare and I never cease to be amazed by it.

"x is at y railway station, via foursquare.com" to "x is in bed, via foursquare" with an indication on the map of where "x"'s home address is.

I've often wondered whether if someone was burgled and it transpired that they'd posted all that info on the internet whether that might compromise their insurance.

I do have a public twitter profile with my picture on it, but I am quite careful about just how much information I reveal on there, and my facebook profile is private and what I post really isn't worth reading anyway

But I am really quite touchy about the whole location thing - I don't want to be tagged in peoples' photos/locations - I don't see why I should want to advertise exactly where I am at any given time.

I agree. I dont do the "check in" thing, and when people have tagged me into their check ins, I usually delete it if I see it.

I most definately dont do a check in of me and my husband, because you really do not know who could see it. No matter how high your security settings, one of your most trusted mates could open their gob and say "oh I see Squeaky and her husband are on holiday"... and while thats the risk anyway, the fact that so many of us are easily found on the internet these days just makes the risk higher.

How does this check-in thing work? I'd quite like to avoid it!!!!

i dont know what 4square is tbh, but i dont check in via fb or twitter. i keep a tight ship on fb, keep the freaks down and high privacy, but still. it's pretty boring to have a newsfeed full of 'is at home' 'is at the bus stop' 'is asleep' etc. i dont care!!!

Round here it's not FB that's letting people know the go-ahead to burgle their houses, they're watching for houses with caravans on their drives and striking when the vans move as the occupants head away in them for the hols.

Friends have that FB places thing going on though - it's so good seeing them check in at the garden/Morrisons every 20 minutes on news feeds - I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than let people know my exact movements (it would bore them shitless more than anything else).