Foursquare

Foursquare Users Worried About Privacy, Continue Providing Locations to Potential Stalkers

by Michael Suen | 2:26 pm, July 25th

“Investigative reporting” or creeping, you decide: To show Guardian reporter Leo Hickman was able to track down a woman selected at random with her Foursquare account, recent tweets, and personal details acquired from Google searches, including a photo. Needless to say, Louise was quite “unnerved” when a reporter showed up at the central London pub she was in.

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Elsewhere on the Internet

FourSquare Has Its First Million-Checkin Day – And Then Its Second

by Rachel Sklar | 4:27 pm, July 5th

Foursquare reached a milestone this weekend – twice. On Friday, the location-based social network hit one million “checkins” from users in a single day — then followed-up on Saturday with its second million-checkin day.

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SXSW

FourSquare Meets 4chan: Only at SXSW [Photo]

by Robert Quigley | 2:20 pm, March 15th

4chan admin, evil genius and TEDTalk deliverer moot shakes hands with FourSquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai. Both are festooned with the coveted Gold Badges.

(via Geekosystem roving correspondent and SXSW Interactive presenter Rachel Sklar.)

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Geolocation May Be Coming Soon to a Facebook Status Update Near You

by Robert Quigley | 3:42 pm, March 9th

The web privacy whistleblowers at Please Rob Me must be having a field day: Facebook may be rolling out a geolocation-based tool for status updates some time in the next month, the New York Times’ Bits Blog reports.

Last November, Facebook stealthily updated their privacy policy to address the possibility that they just might roll out an in-house geolocation service — you can currently tie location to Facebook only via third-party services like Foursquare‘s — and it looks like the rubber is hitting the road.

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Please Rob Me: Using Your Foursquare to Give Thieves the Green Light

by Robert Quigley | 6:15 pm, February 17th

We’ve been meaning to mention Please Rob Me, the site that aggregates publicly available, geolocated Twitter messages of the “I am at X bar” variety, as passed on by Google Buzz and Foursquare, uses them to determine who is and isn’t at their homes, and passes on all of the empty house “opportunities” that are ripe for the robbing.

Well: Please Rob Me exists, and it is scary:

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SXSW

Facebook’s “Foursquare Killer:” Now Mom Will Know Exactly When You’re Getting Wasted

by Andrew Cedotal | 2:18 pm, January 29th

With the recent launch of Twitter’s Geolocation API, every social startup worth its rackspace has been moving in the direction of locational applications. Now, Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider seems to have inside confirmation that Facebook is working on adding capabilities for “checking into” to physical locations through its mobile service. Will parents soon know every time a college freshman hits up a frat party? Will your boss question your frequent trips to the free clinic? Will your significant other notice your repeated, um, “visits” to their best friend’s apartment?

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The Unintentional Hilarity of Twitter Spam Bots

Back Alley Internet is a recurring column in which we explore some of the weirder corners of the Internet and see what we can drudge up for your amusement and education. This week: We study the legions of Twitter bots that trawl the trending topics and spit out some unintentionally hilarious tweets.

Tweetosystem

Eric Limer You have to tew two tutus?! I have to tew two tutus too!
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Max The Pizza and Pasta Foundation supports the federal SAUCE act. Ask your congressman to put some SAUCE on it!
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Eric Limer I like how if you make a mistake typing a popular URL, invariably the site you find is all "YOU'RE WINNER!" It's uplifting for a second.
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Max Spam for work involves a false teeth supplier and someone looking to buy magnetic plates.
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Eric Limer So that improv show was definitely a good idea. Ben Schwartz, Zach Woods, Justin Long, AND Adam Scott. #EverythingWentBetterThanExpected
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Max Got a lot crossed off my to-do list tonight, and I'm starting to feel significantly less freaked about about, well, life.
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Eric Limer I need trephination like I need a hole in the head.
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Max AIM CHAT: I like you, too. *belushis*
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Eric Limer Listening to Call Me Maybe and cropping screengrabs of Twitter bots. It's times like this that I really love my job.
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James Plafke Popular rapper Ladies Love Removed Eyes.
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Eric Limer I am genuinely enjoying using So.cl to make weird picture mash-ups. I just made a collage of becks. http://t.co/ulGbDbwn
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Eric Limer This Facebook IPO coverage needs to stop cuz I'm seriously sick of seeing Zuckerberg staring creepily at me from the top of every story.
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Max Put on your poodle skirts and choose your favorite syrup because we're gonna have a sock-hop at the iHop.
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James Plafke I just threatened my mom to email me something by telling her I'd discuss with her all the lady celebrities I'd have sex with.
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Max New Hallmark Card: "I held an extended conversation with you without being able to remember your name" Inside: "I'm sorry."
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Eric Limer To any of you bros who might like to ice me, I encourage you to act on that urge, bro.
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Eric Limer If anyone is looking for some totally garbled, nigh-incomprehensible ad copy, I'm your man.
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Eric Limer What? None of my Facebook friends are on So.cl? How can this be?!
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Eric Limer "Does this mustache look creepy? Experts are blind; can't tell."
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Rollin Bishop Lin Beifong is suddenly one of the best things about Legend of Korra.
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