Facebook Goes Geolocation

Facebook has released a new feature called  "Places", which allows you to directly "check in" at any location, without the use of a third-party App to do so.  It basically allows you to broadcast your location to friends in your network.  Retail marketers clearly will love the ability to know where you are shopping and direct relevant promotions however, individuals may find this just a little intrusive and possibly even 'creepy'.

Has technology actually gone too far?
If you are concerned about your privacy you will need to go into your account to deactivate this feature.  Once again, Facebook takes the stance of limited privacy by default until you go in and say otherwise.  To use the App on your iPhone or Android phone, you need to go to touch.facebook.com.

Frankly, this may be geo-location gone too far.  One has to wonder about all sorts of legal implications such as the use of evidence in a bad situation or even stalking.  Geolocation has its place in mobile marketing where you decide to opt-in promotions in a safe environment or private relationship between you and the company. Broadcasting your location in an open way is not likely to take off, even among the younger demographic who are concerned about their privacy, according to several industry surveys.