Everywhere and Nowhere

The Desert
Courtesy of Ducklips Photography

Ever get the feeling that the internet is everywhere and nowhere? Have you ever tried visiting the Internet in person? How many people have achieved this goal, (besides anyone from the Matrix)? In reality, the internet is just a long set of cables, switches, routers, firewalls, etc. Not too exciting of a place to go. The “location” of the internet is not as important as your location. And this can mean you as a person, you as a company representative, you as a salesperson, you as leader. Each facet has its own little niche of things that can happen. Last night, I saw a new Pepsi commercial. A lady was on the beach and there was a very long line to the drink vendor/cabana. So she quickly got on the phone and put in her location (actually a little off of where she was) and that she just saw David Beckham at the beach. Everyone from this line gets the updates on their phones and run to try and find him, clearing the line so she could get her Diet Pepsi. Not all location check ins will have this affect, obviously. But as either an entity or person providing services/products, you can strive for that.

Two major events happened this past week, (actually three – the Royal Wedding, but that is not covered here), Osama bin Laden was killed and a local inadvertently tweeted the whole event; and Facebook and Assange are fighting over whether or not Facebook has let the government in the backdoor to spy on the Facebook community. Each one has a lesson for location services.

With the first, the United States decided it had enough information to get bin Laden. Unfortunately for Pakistan, he happened to be hiding out very near to Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point (prestigious US military academy). He also happened to be hiding out around Sohaib Athar, a local resident of Abbottabad who tweeted the whole event. He did not know what was happening, but he tweeted the events and what he had heard about it. In the Mashable link, you can see his Twitter stream and the events and the local understanding of this event. His follower count jumped rapidly, and now media outlets everywhere want to talk to him. The lesson in all this? The raid on the compound was not publicized, it did not have the fanfare and pomp. It was a secretive mission, during the night. One person who felt it was odd, tweeted about it, then kept tweeting the events spreading the news. He was in the right location at the right time, and did something about it. Now his name is known around the world. Now I do not wish to make light this subject, and that is not my intent here. I just want to point out to never miss an opportunity, no matter how dire, confusing, or inconvenient.

The next major event, I read on The Next Web: Facebook fires back at Assange: “We don’t respond to pressure”. The whole story is that Wikileaks lead Julian Assange has claimed that Facebook allows government agencies to slip in the back door to the application to monitor and gather all the data on Facebook, including friends location, status, etc, no matter what you set the privacy setting. Facebook has denied these claims and says that it only responds to legal means, and even then tries to fight it if they feel it is not sufficient. So now privacy is being thrust back into the forefront. And with location services, that could equate to stalking. Couple this with the news of Apple devices storing locations on the devices, and other phones and mobile devices tracking locations, and it can get pretty scary real quick. But let’s not lose sight of this. This topic will become increasingly heated. As a provider of services/products, be upfront about what you track and who you give that information to. Obviously if you provide a check in service, or deals for check in, then there may be a small amount of skepticism over exactly why. By providing this right away, and open policies, you can curb those doubts. Most people and businesses would not be affected by this. But all it takes is just one incident, one loud cry of foul to create a firestorm.

And do not forget, if you do not want anyone to know where you are, then do not check in! If you want to keep some of your life private, then do not share it on social media. No one is forcing you to share your life on the web. If you choose to do so, do so with some common sense and think about what you are sharing and what you want shared.