My opinion of foursquare was skewed long before I ever joined because I had read Foursquare: A Stalker’s Delight, a critical read for anyone planning to use a geo-location service to “check-in” at locations.
I finally signed up for it last night because I want to understand how I can use it for both business and personal reasons. Reading about specials from GAP, Starbucks and other stores piqued my interest and I wasn’t about to miss out on coupons, discounts and special treatment. I also felt that there was use for businesses and at business events (being able to see who is also at a conference will be a quick way to find people to network with).
My concern of course related to privacy because I see far too many people doing things without thinking them through thoroughly. It also tends to be younger people who are in a generation that grew up on the Internet that seem to make most of the mistakes like posting certain things on Facebook and then getting fired/not hired when the photo/video/post is discovered (I could be wrong and just think too highly of my generation that grew up with the Internet and not on the Internet).
I already knew, thanks to the linked blog post, that I could adjust my privacy settings and I did so, but I noted that foursquare specifically asked if I wanted to participate in “Mayorships”. Naturally I clicked “tell me more” to understand what that was:
On foursquare, you can become the “mayor” of a venue by checking in there on more days than anyone else over a 60 day period. Venue owners often reward foursquare mayors with discounts or giveaways.
Mayorship is a public office so please note that the Mayor’s identity (that means thumbnail photo, first name and last initial, and a link to your foursquare profile page) shows up on the venue’s page in foursquare’s mobile app and website as well as on foursquare’s web homepage when you claim the title.
That description seemed fairly harmless but I figured I would experiment some more and decide if “Mayorships” were really for me.
Now, I am not some paranoid person with lots of stuff to hide, in fact I have lots of information set to be very public about me. Google “David Mullings” and you will see just how much stuff is out there, most of which I put out there myself. You most likely can even find my personal email address and my phone number (I put them out there myself).
I want people to contact me because they saw a cool article about me, my business, something I did or liked something I wrote. You can’t build a personal brand by being unknown.
But, I also realize that Richard Branson, while being very public, is also very private, and I take a few cues from these successful multi-millionaire business people (one day I hope to be one of them).
I checked into the Barnes and Noble that I usually visit because I like showing support for the store and I wanted to see what kind of badge I would get (really participating). I saw who was the “Mayor” and got to work on my experiment: How much could I figure out about this person?
Foursquare gave me a first name, last initial, city and state. Obviously I probably didn’t need the city and state since the person frequents the location, meaning they probably live nearby (duh!).
From that basic information I was able to figure out the following (I won’t reveal the name):
- Her first and last name
- The name of her high school
- The fact that she went to that high school from 2002-2006
- Goes to Palm Beach State College
- Frequents the BJ’s nearby
- Supports gay marriage
- Likes Papa John’s pizza
Most of this stuff is completely harmless on the surface but if someone wanted to put together a list of potential youth voters likely to vote against a ban on gay marriage in Florida and start monitoring their movements, easy.
I found all this out quite easily, too easily.
Foursquare linked to her Twitter account, where she had her real name. I put her name into Google with “Florida” beside it and found her via Classmates.com then searched for her on Facebook and confirmed that was really her high school and the graduation years matched. I then looked at her “Likes” on Facebook and combined that with her tweets and foursquare checkins, especially where she is “Mayor” of, to begin to build a basic profile.
There is lots of my information that is public, but I understand how it can be used and still choose to put it out there. I don’t know if this person realizes how much they have allowed a complete stranger into their life. What happens when it is not a person doing research for a blog post to warn others and is instead a person looking to steal a car from an easy target?
Let me expound on a potential scenario: Person A wants to steal car and finds a Mayor of a nearby location, Person B, on foursquare. Person B makes sure to never check-in at home so as not to give up home location. Smart. Person A hangs out at Person B’s regular spots to scope out if they own a car. Person A sees Person B, recognized thanks to the photo on foursquare, identifies car and jots down plates. Person B checks in at location like college. Person A takes note and spends 1 week monitoring pattern. Next time Person B goes to school, Person A is already on campus, looks for car and makes off with it. Person B leaves class and wonders how come their car got stolen and not the more expensive one right beside it.
I don’t think that is so far-fetched, especially during an “economic downturn”. Criminals are not stupid, they know how to use foursquare, Twitter and Facebook too.
Providing this seemingly mundane information can be very dangerous but it is also beneficial to marketers (I should know, I have a degree in Marketing). Work for Pizza Hut and want to try and get some people to convert from Papa John’s? Give out coupons for free pizza at the locations the Papa John’s fans frequent. Looking for people who like certain music so you can market your new band to them? Have a street team hand out flyers at the intersections of the locations the people frequent.
I could go on and on.
Foursquare guarantees that I know where to go and gets rid of the guessing game. I even know exactly who to look for because they post their pictures (I have my picture up too).
My point is that “Mayorship is a public office” as foursquare says and with that comes more responsibility than you probably thought about.
Personally, I don’t need to be a virtual mayor of anything bad enough to make it even easier to figure out my physical traveling patterns or make myself and even easier target. I have seen enough cop television shows to understand the dangers of allowing people to create predictable patterns of movement near your residence.
I will be reserving check-ins for special places I visit and stores I really want to support. No “Mayorships” for me anywhere unless it is far from my house (like paintball).
The only place I would be willing to be “Mayor” of is the local gun range 
