Uno de Waal

Uno de Waal’s online space covering everything about web2.0, social networks and internet related developments in South Africa and how it fits in with the rest of the world.

on Women and location based systems

Uno as Web2.0

Jul|29|2008

After reading this:

This is HERD: More stats about women online.

And some of this Location Technologies Primer:

But being location aware more than makes up for those limitations. Social networking will fundamentally change as your device knows who’s around you, for example. Startups like Loopt, Brightekite and Limbo are all offering social networking products that leverage location awareness.

And having the though for some time: I’d love to get the opinion from some women on Location Based Systems and what they think of being able to share their data like that.

Reason I’m thinking is that if I was a girl, I really wouldn’t want to let the entire bar that I’m in at the moment know that I’m single, give access to my photos and then be open to approach. Sure, if I would be single and looking I’d like to broadcast that I am, in fact, single and looking, but you don’t want every single guy to come up to you and start chatting you up. You’d want to be selective.

Quite a few of the apps that I’ve caught being released all have some kind of broadcasting system built in - you broadcast your status, and people can then connect with you. Naturally that’s in the “discovery” field of social networks, but sometimes you’d broadcast to only your already existing friends (which is a different model of social network). I don’t see the point in having an LBS network that doesn’t do this really… With LBS’s I’d like to see very granular privacy settings, because without that I can’t imagine people people broadcasting their location.

So, what do women think about LBS and broadcasting your info like that? Would you do it?

I suppose there are people who would want to broadcast their location, sexual preference and favourite movie….



7 Responses

  1. justBcoz

    29|Jul|2008

    No way!!!

    I would never, ever want to broadcast that kind of info. There are some crazy people out there and I would definitely want to protect my privacy.

  2. Eve Dmochowska

    29|Jul|2008

    Girl or no girl, I need to be 100% able to control what private information about me is available, and not just to strangers. I can think of countless situations where I would not want my location disclosed to even my nearest family (”I see you are by the store. Can you run in and get these thirteen things for me…”).

    Of course, when circumstances change I can change my mind:-) At a 27 dinner, for instance, I would not mind letting all my friends (real or virtual) know that I am there.

    Overall, I treasure my privacy. And I like being alone, a lot. It doesn’t happen often though, and to think that my hiatus from others could be interrupted because I was betrayed by my cellphone etc is not acceptable.

    As for men knowing everything about me before I say a word, once again I do not limit that to just men in a bar. Ditto for my clients, future employers, my children, their friends etc. Basically, if I don’t want to see it plastered on the front page of a newspaper, I am not posting it. Granted, we can’t always control what is posted about us, but overall I think we at least can, and should, set a precedence of respectability.

  3. SheBee

    29|Jul|2008

    I don’t know, it wouldn’t bother me too much to be honest. My info is available online in my blog anyway.

    But to answer your question, would I really go and deliberately have it out there just so I could find someone? Hell to the NO!

    I’m single, young and (sometimes) looking, but I definately don’t think I’d actually fill out an app like that purely to meet somebody.

  4. Kat Scholtz

    29|Jul|2008

    I have to agree with Eve. The idea of people knowing where I am coupled with private information about me makes me really uncomfortable, no matter how well I know them. I should be the only person with access to all that info. Even if I were single and looking, there’s just no scenario where “Hi, you have a really cute profile pic” isn’t a creepy introductory sentence.

  5. Cath

    29|Jul|2008

    Honestly, I would never want that kind of information transmitted anywhere. I am horribly private about my life and anal about it - I prefer to only let those people I know or want to have know such info, where I am, who I am and how I’m doing.

    I would prefer my personal space and privacy respected at all times.

  6. Uno

    29|Jul|2008

    Thanks to all your responses!

    I think the reason for my thinking is that most of the reviews you hear about a new location based web app are mostly from super excited geeks who really look forward to being able to chat up girls easier. And while I think guys might get really excited about being able to see who’s where, it’s going to freak girls out. They already have to deal with loads of unwanted attention, now even more!

    And therefore, even though the tech is really really cool (in the geeky kind of way), we need to think about the unintended uses of technology and new apps, just because guys think it’s cool, doesn’t mean that girls will (which is, oh, 50% of the market)

  7. Alex

    30|Jul|2008

    LBS systems would have to be very secure.
    i wouldn’t use it to meet people around me on a random basis, but i would love to know whether people in a similar profession were around me. in fact, the main benefit in my eyes is being able to identify potential contacts in a Linked-In kind of way.

    I think privacy settings would have to be very defined and easy to control and modify.


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