Granular control. Absolutely. Giventhe number number of organizations that already know when we're away from home base (airlines, credit card companies, cell phone carriers, google maps, email hosts…) the opportunity for the criminally intense will continue to grow. Obvious intrusions identify weaknesses in unexpected locations.

Also an opportunity for ADT Security. ;)

I don't wanna get robbed. Things have me considering a serious shift away from being open.

Lol. Granularity, man. Just don't push everything to completely public web…

ADT security :) Kinda like Lifelock; i.e., security so good, you can publish your key personal info and it won't get used / security so good, you can publish your physical location free of worry about your valuables at home.

Spot on man! I used to say this about all the times people were being kidnaped, assaulted, arrested, busted, or otherwise harmed because of their own stupidity. Like you say an evolution in controls and anonymity will come, like the newer privacy controls that Facebook has. The problem is that stupid people do stupid things. I cannot tell you how many friends I have that do not lock down info that they don't want floating around the internet. I guess my final thought is that people who understand technology like you and me will still be hearing headline news stories long after these services exist.

Well, I want to be clear: I'm not advocating making everything more private: I'm advocating better systems that measure the upside and downside of making “thought-to-be-private” information explicitly public. That's the only way we'll grow to understand the power of private-to-public, default-to-public, serendipity, etc.

(and: don't blame technology, because the real culprit are people, by how we create and use technology.)

My thought is that most criminals aren't intelligent enough to connect LBS with criminal activity, and the one's who are intelligent enough…well, they'll take care of business regardless.

Never underestimate people :)

Online privacy is an illusion and it certainly becomes less of a reality with the more LBS you opt into. Whether the information is publicly available or there for the company whose service you're using to access you're inherently losing privacy. What value it provides is questionable. We'll see how it evolves.

I'll return to a comment I left on Alan's previous post: “Fact is we don't really have the metrics to value the upside or downside of sharing. “Where's my regression function for valuing the costs and benefits of sharing/selling different bits of information?”"

That value is questionable now, but it won't be forever. I believe we're currently under-valuing the benefits of public information. The key, of course, is for us to control what we “lose” …

There are two interesting aspects of privacy on this subject.
1. Risk vs Reward in relation to how much you divulge to your network
2. Risk vs Reward in relation to how much you reveal to the companies leveraging your data.

Individual privacy in the traditional sense among your peers is often a concern. Stalkers being the most noteworthy subject of discussion as was noted in Andrew Hyde's post Committing Location Based Suicide.

Enterprise privacy (for lack of a better term) in which people accept giving their personal information away to be used to enhance a product/offering. I'm curious at what point people will catch on to the value of their information and make companies pay for it or at least work for it. Then again perhaps that will be isolated to super users who are able to monetize their larger network of followers. Micro-channels of advertising and trust to catalyze activity.

How many people do you know where personal and professional is blurred? The division isn't that clear between “my network” and “companies”.

People making companies pay for their info? Relative bargaining power, collective action, etc. = not likely.

There has been a great discussion about privacy, etc. on the Project VRM mailing list the last couple days. Fascinating, but at a level that I'm just not concerned with. All I want to do is create, nudge, use services that test the edge or private and public information, because we can debate what people want / don't want, but the marketplace will show us.

How many people do you know where personal and professional is blurred? The division isn’t that clear between “my network” and “companies”.rnrnPeople making companies pay for their info? Relative bargaining power, collective action, etc. = not likely.rnrnThere has been a great discussion about privacy, etc. on the Project VRM mailing list the last couple days. Fascinating, but at a level that I’m just not concerned with. All I want to do is create, nudge, use services that test the edge or private and public information, because we can debate what people want / don’t want, but the marketplace will show us.