Popularity of social sites has been making us obsessive compulsive share everything maniac. We all know please who have to broadcast to the world by "checking in" via foursquare/gowalla (oh well)/facebook places and then cross post it to twitter/facebook/google+ etc, all the time. This cross posting of the checkin activity to twitter makes it very public. just try searching for 4sq on twitter.
Everytime a "checkin" is broadcasted to the world, in addition to telling everyone where you are, it also tells the world where you are NOT i.e. your house. You might already be sharing the location of your house via unkowingly geotagging the pics/tweets etc. Sites like PleaseRobme are popular for raising awareness on this issue.
I do understand the urge to share. Winning mayorships, badges, points can be addictive. Moreover foursquare and shopkick have been experimenting by making the checkins earn real dollars by giving coupons/discounts.
Here is my attempt to making checking a little "safer" :
1. Check out instead of checking in : Unless your friends use your foursquare feed to run into you, checking out of a place is usually safer than checking in without loosing any functionality. You still get your mayorships, badges, points etc without revealing the estimated time you will be at the exact location. eg. your checkin at a movie theatre/restaurant ties you to the location for a few hours vs checking out
2. Dont cross post your checkins via twitter/facebook etc. Believe me there is nothing more irritating seeing the twitter feed full of crap like that. It makes your checkins a little less public
3. Think about making your checkins private. this ensures your location is available to your "friends" and not anyone at internet.
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