Facebook has just launched Places a new application that allows you to check in at various places across the city: http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2264492, letting anyone with access to your page know where you are. While the idea might appeal to some -- friends can quickly find you or know if you are close by and that random guy or girl you've been flirting with might just show up unannounced, one wonders if it really does anything but keep you under surveillance by parents, jealous mates, exes and anyone else who wants to spy on you (in addition to the criminals that could also take advantage of the information). Not only does it tell people where you are, but can also tell them who you're with. Isn't it easy to just text or call someone you are going to meet up with? Are the chances of a chance encounter really worth meeting back up with that stalker who hacks your page or you forgot to defriend? What do we really gain from announcing to the world everywhere we go? And how many relationships will end under the paranoid delusions of a jealous partner? In the latest attempt to completely undermine privacy, the site might actually succeed. The odd thing is how many people will openly embrace this intrusion -- I already know one friend on Facebook who must have been part of the beta version -- increasingly living their lives out loud for all to witness; in real time! It is odd for those of us that still value our privacy, but the inversion of the public and private spheres Zygmunt Bauman argued for in the End of Politics only appears to expand endlessly outward. And unlike 1984, people are openly choosing to be monitored now.
P.S. For those who want to disable this feature, the following article provides all the infomration you need to restore a modicum of privacy: http://lifehacker.com/5616395/how-to-disable-facebook-places.
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