by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: September 28, 2010

Concerns about privacy have always dogged Facebook, who have severely mishandled the issue on several occasions in the past, in their quest to exploit the advertising revenue potential of their 500 million members. So it is no surprise that there are severe privacy concerns about Facebook Places, the social networking ubersite's answer to the up and coming service Foursquare, from which smartphone users are able to 'check in' and update the world as to their whereabouts.

Some users have expressed concern with the Facebook version of the service, which enables users to see which of their friends are nearby, as well as enabling them to explore where their friends have been getting to. Does using the service mean that other people are able to see where they are just because they have their smartphone logged in to Facebook? What if they go somewhere embarrassing (and although we can all make sniggering jokes about VD clinics or brothels, 'embarrassing' in this context just means anywhere you are not supposed to be at a given time - from stopping off at a bar when you're supposed to be on the way home to your family, to being anywhere but your own house when you've phoned in to work sick)?

Facebook has of course tried to head off these problems. By default, only your friends will be able to see the locations from which you have checked in, and you can even restrict this further to keep certain friends in the dark about your movements (let us assume that you are not a philandering malingerer and that you are... organising a surprise birthday party for a friend and don't want them to see that you and all your friends are waiting in their favourite bar to surprise them).

Not only are your friends the only people who can see where you have checked in, but only your friends can 'tag' you as having checked into places they have been - and these tags are removable afterwards.

So Facebook have been aware of privacy concerns - the question is whether they have done enough to address them. As always, Facebook have forced members to configure their privacy setting for Facebook Places, and then there is the question of those third party apps that make it a condition of use that they can access your private data.

Different people have different standards of privacy online, and particularly on Facebook, and although Facebook Places is unlikely to be anything other than a success, those who are seriously concerned about their privacy would be well advised to steer clear of the service. It is currently thought that future advertising revenue trends will favour location-based marketing, so it is in Facebook's interests to have a stake in this market and to make it as open as possible.

The fundamental privacy concern about Facebook Places is the same as for Foursquare, however, and that is that a whole generation is now handing over the most detailed description of their movements to advertisers and corporations. With Google's recent revelations about the volume of government requests for user data, it should be clear to the world that privacy concerns are not just 1984-inspired paranoia, but legitimate worries about the way in which we have become far too cavalier with our most personal information.

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