This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge,It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook

[salvorhardin]

A must-read for anyone concerned about their privacy. The truly sad thing, I think, is that this app doesn't represent a bug but a feature. This is a prime example of what the social web is supposed to allow us to do according to its most temerarious cheerleaders.

It’s an app that can be interpreted many ways. It is as innocent as it is insidious; it is just as likely to be reacted to with laughter as it is with tears; it is as much of a novelty as it has the potential to be used a tool for rapists and stalkers.

And more than anything, it’s a wake-up call about privacy.

The only way to really explain Girls Around Me to people is to load it up and show them how it works, so I did. I placed my iPhone on the table in front of everyone, and opened the app.

...

Girls Around Me is a standard geolocation based maps app, similar to any other app that attempts to alert you to things of interest in your immediate vicinity: whether it be parties, clubs, deals, or what have you. When you load it up, the first thing Girls Around Me does is figure out where you are and load up a Google Map centered around your location. The rest of the interface is very simple: in the top left corner, there’s a button that looks like a radar display, at the right corner, there’s a fuel meter (used to fund the app’s freemium model), and on the bottom left is a button that allows you to specify between whether you’re interested in women, men or both.

It’s when you push the radar button that Girls Around Me does what it says on the tin. I pressed the button for my friends. Immediately, Girls Around Me went into radar mode, and after just a few seconds, the map around us was filled with pictures of girls who were in the neighborhood. Since I was showing off the app on a Saturday night, there were dozens of girls out on the town in our local area.

Full post: http://www.cultofmac.com/157641/this-creepy-app-isnt-just-stalking-women-without-their-knowledge-its-a-wake-up-call-about-facebook-privacy

[Ilsa]

1. Could easily be a rapist's tool. nt

[freshwest]

2. Probably already is, that and terrorizing progressives who trust FB. Stay away from this app!

[salvorhardin]

4. The app itself isn't the problem.

Rather the problem is that people often don't understand their Facebook privacy settings so data such as their geolocation coordinates can be used by apps like this without their knowledge. The app is just using data that's been made available to it, and doesn't differ significantly from other geolocation apps like Foursquare.

[freshwest]

8. I'm sure millions of Facebook users have no idea what you just said, though.

[robinlynne]

20. Wouldn't you need to have a GPS for someone to track your location?

[salvorhardin]

26. Not necessarily

This particular app uses Foursquare checkins, and then couples the information with publicly viewable Facebook profile data. Foursquare (and other location services) allow people to check in manually, or even check in their friends, at a location.

[GeorgeGist]

24. That's some twisted logic.

Enjoy your privacy.

[salvorhardin]

27. No, it's not twisted logic

This app is not substantially different from other location services apps. It's actually providing a service that many people want -- they want other people to know where they are, because they feel it facilitates meeting up with their friends in real life, or discovering nearby people they might like to be friends with.

What this app does differently is it packages the same data the other location services apps have access to and repackages it in a decidedly creepy manner.

In other words, people want this stuff, they just don't want it this way.

The big problem is that many people don't realize that their privacy settings make it possible for their data to be used this way, or even worse, they take a defeatist view that it's all out there anyway so why fight it. Partly this is because FB's privacy settings are notoriously difficult to understand, even after FB simplified them months ago, and people aren't used to imagining the possible uses their data can be put to. In particular, they have trouble picturing how their data across different services can be recombined and used in a way they never intended.

[bart95]

3. facebook is a profound violation of one's own privacy

that you never, ever get back

[Blue Owl]

5. Betchya ten bucks James O'Keefe's got that app running 24/7

n/t

[Quantess]

6. I am going to block it.

Thanks for the tip.

[greenman3610]

11. how do I block it? moreover, what do I tell my daughter?

[Quantess]

13. I was unable to block this one for some reason.

But then, it only has 800 subscribers.

Usually with most apps you can visit their facebook page and there is an option to block. I didn't see it on this one.

[islander]

17. That's because it's not really a Facebook app

The explanation "Cult of Mac" gave for how this app works is horribly, horribly wrong. It can't search Facebook for "nearby Foursquare checkins" because Foursquare checkins on Facebook don't include enough information. "Girls Around Me" is searching Foursquare, pure and simple. The Facebook features are just there to let you look at women's profiles.

If you use Foursquare, you can block this app by going to https://foursquare.com/settings/privacy and unchecking the first box under "Location Information." Alternately, you can not worry about it at all, since Foursquare already blocked the app.

[Quantess]

23. So it's just a big waste of money for the creepy dudes

in other words.

[islander]

34. I'm pretty sure it was ALWAYS a big waste of money for the creepy dudes.

After all, what kind of woman hears "I was just reading your Facebook profile and thought you sounded hot" at a bar and jumps into bed with the guy?

The guys who buy this app are probably the sames one who buy those books on "how to be a player." They got no game!

[islander]

16. She'll probably roll her eyes at your, but...

Tell her to go to https://foursquare.com/settings/privacy and uncheck the first box under "Location Information."

[Renew Deal]

15. I think you're OK as long as you don't use Foursquare

“Not at all. These are all girls with publicly visible Facebook profiles who have checked into these locations recently using Foursquare. Girls Around Me then shows you a map where all the girls in your area trackable by Foursquare area. If there’s more than one girl at a location, you see the number of girls there in a red bubble. Click on that, and you can see pictures of all the girls who are at that location at any given time. The pictures you are seeing are their social network profile pictures.”

[GopperStopper2680]

7. Just another example of Big Brother reminding us he's here.

N/T

[Iris]

14. exept Big Brother is the government.

Facebook and its advertisers are corporations

[hunter]

22. Is there a difference anymore?

Their doesn't seem to be much of a boundary between government and corporations.

[Selatius]

25. Merging state and corporate power is the definition of corporatism.

Your grandparents may have called it by the older term, "fascism."

Of course, I don't mean to belittle the suffering of the entire European continent by saying the US government is as bad as Hitler or Mussolini. At best, an argument could be made, though, that the US is a proto-fascist state, but in my book, a proto-fascist state is already one that should be feared.

Our elections are run on private money. Our votes are counted on privately-owned counting machines. Many bills that are passed by Congress were, themselves, written by lobbyists working for privately owned corporations. Many agencies in the federal government are now staffed by people that the agencies are supposed to police. The term is called "regulatory capture."

Yeah, Hitler may have been defeated, but fascism or the more modern "corporatism" as a political force in the world is still, far and away, a very powerful force in the world.

[Old and In the Way]

9. A year ago, my daughter's pic could have shown up on Queensberry St.

She had an apartment there and is an avid Facebooker. weird.

[arcane1]

10. You beat me to it, I was just about to post this! n/t

[Journeyman]

12. One of the better articles I've read about these types of Apps. . .

Thanks for sharing. I've forwarded it to the women in my life.

[salvorhardin]

28. Why not forward it to the men in your life too?

Because the app locates men too.

[roguevalley]

18. something is wrong with men today. something really wrong with many

[Odin2005]

19. This is so verry wrong...

[Kablooie]

21. Maybe it's for Avon sales representatives?

[chrisa]

29. People who show up on this are not using the internet wisely

From what I get, they have both a public Facebook profile, and "check-in" that they're at a location so that this is posted to Facebook - for the whole internet to see. What a great way to let criminals, abusive ex-boyfriends, or rapists know about your rituals so that they'll know where to find you. It's insane...

[redqueen]

30. Privacy is a huge issue but the main problem with this app is its promotion of rape culture.

Showing images of cartoony women on stripper poles.

Common knowledge that it's for men who are looking to "pull some action".

Privacy is a huge issue but the bigger problem with this app is the open embracing of rape culture.

The biggest problem is how many people seem not to mind or even notice rape culture. That's really the biggest issue.

[salvorhardin]

31. I can't disagree with you there

[CommProf]

32. UPDATE: Product pulled from App Store

The producer of the app still defends it, but FourSquare has disabled its link, rendering the app useless. For an updated story of the App-makers defense, and a critique, see:

http://www.cultofmac.com/157925/girls-around-me-dev-we-didnt-do-anything-wrong-statement/

[salvorhardin]

33. Thanks for the update!