April 01, 2012

Mix maps, Facebook and geolocation and you get something like this. Creepy. Charlie Stross has more about it here.
posted by polychrome 12 years ago
  • Facebook is already creepy enough.
  • Charlie Stross says: "...if you're not paying for the product, you are the product". Yep, that's true. You and the data you share are their only product. I have never told FB where I live, but it has somehow inferred that I am "near Dallas". I also never told them who I work for, but one day FB said "Your friend, , suggests you work for - Is that correct". I carefully neither confirmed nor denied it and closed the browser.
  • So! You live near Dallas, eh?
  • Or maybe it's Dallas. (All I know is that right now sirens are going off and some big water is falling out of the sky).
  • If you use a smartphone with GPS to access FB it will find you. Also the same for G+.
  • And this is why I don't care for the social media stuff.
  • But isn't MoFi "social media stuff" too?
  • No no no no no, unless something on the Internet is making money via advertising, membership or licensing, it's not allowed to call itself "media", social or otherwise. MetaFilter barely qualifies, but is on Permanent Double Secret Probation for not making enough money. But if anybody associated with MonkeyFilter ever seriously tries to call it "social media", the Powers That Be will send someone over to break the webmaster's knees or the site's CSS (whichever hurts more). So MoFi is officially designated as just "something on the internet".