I’m pretty certain that I won’t be signing up to location based check-in services like Gowalla, Facebook Places and foursquare.
I know I’ve said the same in the past about facebook and twitter and subsequently done a major about-turn, but its not only that I can’t really see the value in participating, this time I have personal safety issues.
As a single girl, I don’t think broadcasting where I am, where I’ve been and (by implication) where I’m not (hello, local burglars) is a very good idea. In fact I’ve taken it as far as going into facebook’s privacy settings to make sure my online friends can’t check me in either (thanks for the heads up Roo).
If I’m at an industry event, I’ll probably be sporting a fetching name badge, so checking-in then to announce my attendance seems a bit pointless too.
It also occurs to me that mass adoption of check-in services is going to result in a lot of extra noise on news feeds for services like twitter and facebook. I haven’t worked out yet why I should care that my uni friend at the other end of the country has just checked into a bar.
I’m very googlable and fairly open online, but this kind of sharing feels like a step too far in several directions for me. Am I missing something?
