New Facebook Phone App Lets You Stalk Your Friends 61
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Iain Thomson reports that Facebook is adding a new application called 'Nearby Friends' that alerts smartphone users when their friends are nearby. 'If you turn on Nearby Friends, you'll occasionally be notified when friends are nearby, so you can get in touch with them and meet up,' says Facebook in a statement. 'For example, when you're headed to the movies, Nearby Friends will let you know if friends are nearby so you can see the movie together or meet up afterward.' The feature, which is opt-in, allows users to select which friends get a warning that you are in the area, and prepare a subset of people who might like to know when you're near, if they have the Nearby Friends activated as well. According to Josh Constine what makes 'Nearby Friends' different than competitors and could give it an advantage is that it's centered around broadcasting proximity, not location. 'If someone's close, you'll know, and can ping them about their precise location and meeting up. Broadcasting location is creepy so we're less likely to share it, and can cause awkward drop-ins where someone tries to come see you when you didn't want them to.'"
"'If you turn on Nearby Friends" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"'If you turn on Nearby Friends" (Score:5, Interesting)
This feature is actually a killer app on the dating phone apps. When you're logged in it encourages meeting new people directly because the apps shows you two are close by, (or not). It's a huge icebreaker to say "hey, looks like you're about five blocks from me, wanna get coffee?"
So for the Facebook aspect I'd focus on the implementation of the Opt-In (to make sure no Facebook silliness is going on), then the key is you *toggle* it on and off all day.
Re:Facebook is stalking you anyway (Score:4, Insightful)
This is completely backwards. (Score:5, Funny)
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No it isn't. Posting your every move online and reading about others every move online is not socializing. This is equivalent to saying that a news reporter is socializing because they are talking to millions of people.
Google Latitude (Score:4, Informative)
Didn't Google Latitude do this like 5 years ago?
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We’ll never know, none of the 7 google latitude users ever got within 20 miles from each others.
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yeah it's pretty old hat as a feature. ..and really, if you don't want to be stalked by some dude, don't enable the nearby friends feature for that dude. simple as that, no?
it's getting to the point with fb that if they add ANY feature that adds any connectivity possibility or something then someone will quickly write about how it enables stalking, surveillance or something else.
How about nearby enemies? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd rather have a "people I don't want to meet" warning.
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Hmmm.... (Score:1)
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
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On-campus groups (Score:2)
In my younger days, we didn't have mobile phones, let alone facebook.
How to meet your future spouse (2014)
1. Enrol for a first year university subject with a broad cross-section of students e.g. Psychology or Italian for Beginners.
2. Join your professor's facebook group.
3. Enable proximity.
4. Study in a large communal area near the cafeteria.
5. Your phone beeps...
So while the article mentions 'friends', enabling proximity for classmates would be a quick way to break the ice with a large group of people.
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Doesn't being able to remember the faces of classmates and getting to know each other because that's what people do when they have even the slightest common bond inside a larger group of strangers, also suffice?
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Well sure but teenagers exhibit shyness, which is one reason proximity-based hookup apps exist in the first place.
I remember also that popular classes either had 200 or more people in the one lecture hall (too many to remember faces or engage with all of them) or were scheduled in smaller rooms across different days and times.
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Pointless (Score:1, Insightful)
Get off my lawn time.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Can't anybody just let life happen anymore? No more spontaneous meetups, no more random happenings. Everything orderly, predictable and uploadable for facebook to make money with. I'm no luddite, I spend a good amount of my life working with and using technology, but stuff like this? I guess this is where I diverge from the younger generation. To each his own I guess. Don't mean to come down as judgmental or anything, I would like to hear the other side and how this stuff actually makes life better.
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No more spontaneous meetups, no more random happenings. Everything orderly, predictable and uploadable for facebook to make money with.
Umm.... the entire point of the app is to encourage spontaneous random meetups.
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The problem is that life doesn't happen. How do you form a spontaneous meetup? I don't live in a country town. There could be 30 of my friends at my local shopping centre all day and I wouldn't bump into any of them. There's some 40 cafes within 2km of here, about 4 different cinemas, two of which are megaplexes and will show popular movies every 1 hour, hell even on the more esoteric side there's 3 bowling alleys within that 2km radius as well.
The modern world is massive and we are spread thin. I tend to l
...Watches the Watchmen (Score:1)
FaceBook is just using this "app" as a tracking tool for their add business. Remember: YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!
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What a bunch of bullshit (Score:2)
AFAIK you can't broadcast proximity (Score:2)
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huh? (Score:1)
...and Facebook users, at that?
Why we can't have nice things (Score:2)
First, why would you have an ex as a friend on FB, still? Second, why would YOU choose to share your location with them?
Put aside the hate for a second and realise this is done right... or at least closer to right. It's opt-in, which solves the first problem most people have. Second, you specifically choose who you want to share with. It's not everyone by default. Yes, yes... you have to tell FB where you're at first. If you have a problem with that, you're probably not on FB, anyhow, so who cares?
I could s
Your so-called Facebook Friends (Score:1)