Facebook is
introducing a mobile feature called Nearby Friends that taps into that steady
stream of location information so friends can track each other in real time.
The idea is
to make it easy for people to meet up in real life, so they can have
conversations in person instead of comment threads, temporarily replacing Likes
and LOLs with eye contact and actual laughter. A live meet-up is also an
excellent opportunity to grab a selfie with your pal and upload it to the
Facebook owned Instagram.
In a
refreshing change, the new Nearby Friends feature is not turned on by default.
New Facebook tool finds your friends
Friends will
not be able to see where you are unless you decide live-tracking is something
you want in your life and visit Facebook's settings to turn it on. Making a
potentially invasive new feature opt-in suggests Facebook has perhaps learned
from some of its past mistakes and privacy problems.
You can
choose to share your general location with all your Facebook friends, close
friends or a customized list of people you feel most comfortable with. Further
minimizing the potential stalking factor, your location is only shared with
other people who are also using the feature and who have chosen to share their
location with you.
When turned
on, Nearby Friends shows a list of approved Facebook friends who also use the
feature and shows their approximate location. A push notification can tell you
how many of your friends are nearby. Open the app to see a list of pals, the
neighborhood or city where they are, how many miles away that is from your
current location, and a time stamp of when they where there.
There is an
option to share your exact location with specific friends, which can be handy
for coordinating large groups at concerts or finding someone in a crowded area.
Your friends will see a little image of your face on a map for a set period of
time.
Nearby
Friends will be available on Facebook's iOS and Android apps, but will only
work for select locations at first.
Facebook,
Instagram and many other apps already include features that let people
"check-in" to locations, but those location features are different
because you decide if and when to share each specific location. You might check
into a Starbucks downtown, but never into your home or other spot you'd rather
keep private. Nearby Friends is continuously gathering details about where you
are in the background instead of waiting for a manual check-in.
This is not
the first time an app has used location information to physically connect
friends. Similar apps such as Highlight, which got a flurry of attention in
2012, mapped out the locations of nearby strangers. Facebook also purchased a
startup in 2012 called Glancee that also connected strangers. That technology
evolved into this new, more private feature.
If you turn
on the Nearby Friends feature, Facebook starts collecting data on your exact
location and keeps details on where you've been in the past, not just places
where you've used its app to check in. It also collects location information
even when the Facebook app is closed.
But you can
turn off this location history in the Facebook app's settings. It's possible to
delete individual locations from a history, or clear the whole thing and start
from scratch.
from cnn
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