Facebook Discovers Places Exist

Alright, I admit I stretched a bit for that headline.  However, the important bit is that Facebook has now added Places to it’s features.  Places allow you to tag where you’re at when you post status updates.  On the benign side of the coin (that’s the Harvey Dent one for you DC nerds reading), this will allow a richer connection between people’s status and their location.  You’ll be able to start getting a good feel for what places drive your friend’s positive or negative status.  There’s an associated iPhone update their iPhone app that automatically tags your location, should you opt into using Places.  Otherwise, you can ‘tag’ your location manually if your phone does not support LBS.  On the malignant side of the coin (Two Face side), this raises a whole host of privacy concerns.  Cyberstalking isn’t anything new, but the ‘scale’ of the problem given the popularity of Facebook just got a whole lot worse, I think.  On top of that, make sure you’re not updating Facebook status during ‘work’ time when you’re actually at the local watering hole.  Your boss might be able to find that information out and use it against you.  We already have plenty of reports of companies using Facebook updates and information against employees.  Take the warnings of Google’s boss Eric Schmidt – be careful what you put on the Internet!  You don’t want to have to change your name every couple dozen years to cover up past online sins.