Privacy is still essential although tough to make happen for Facebook with location depending networking

Facebook Places gets a new location-based networking program to start working with. This should be great for the social site. Smartphone's with some GPS can use Facebook Places. Friends can see each other on the program. Use Facebook Places in one more simple way. Just tag friends that are with you. Places also makes it possible to discover new places you might be interested in. Privacy for Facebook is argued more hotly with this new product being used. Businesses have a better chance of getting someone in their doors when they advertise to someone with Facebook Places while that person is right outside their door. It could also be used by burglars and other criminals to identify targets. Facebook privacy settings to allow Places to be disabled. Information that is personal tends to be vulnerable.

Facebook Places - a tool for mobile advertising

Foursquare and Gowalla are networking sites that Facebook Places have based upon itself off. Users can check in on there so their location will be shown to their friends. The New York Times reports that Michael Sharon, works for Places, says that Places wants to get a minimum of 500 million Facebook users to use this program. The Times pointed out that helping Facebook tap local and small-business advertisers to gain a competitive advantage over Google is the more likely objective for Places. Analysts say both companies covet the potential market for mobile advertising and search. Identity and behavior is studied this way. Corporations will benefit when knowing what human behavior is turning into.

Places is one more privacy issue Facebook has to confront

Sam Diaz from ZDNet says that it is really just weird that Facebook would give the location of users with Places to help with advertising. Diaz writes that given the ability of guests at a party at his home turning his address into a public "place" on Facebook, his only recourse is to flag his address to have it removed. Tagging friends with you is another concern that he has. It would suck if your friend tagged you someplace you weren't designed to be. You are able to actually determine whether or not you get tagged. Just go check out your privacy settings. Diaz also was worried that burglars would look to see "who's not home" on Facebook Places and use that.

Get a way to disable Facebook Places

Facebook users should listen up. Keep your location on private settings with tips from Lifehacker. Places can only be changed if you change privacy settings. You'll have to get on your Facebook account. Unfortunately, by default, your Facebook Places setting is already picked. It is set as allow locations. The default also lets individuals know a user is at a particular location via the location's Facebook page or in a search for individuals near the location. The user might not even know some of the people checking where they're since friends of friends are allowed to see them with this default privacy setting for Facebook.

Further reading

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/08/19/technology/19facebook.html?ref=technology

ZDNet

zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebook-launches-places-geo-location-service-thats-both-cool-and-creepy/38203

Lifehacker

lifehacker.com/5616395/how-to-disable-facebook-places