Facebook Places, the new location tracking service which is a copy of FourSquare was launched in Australia yesterday and already it is concerning me. The service works by tracking where a Facebook user on a mobile device is using the GPS in that mobile device and then when the arrive to a location that has GPS co-ordinates registered with Facebook, prompts the user to Check-In that they are currently at that place. That information is then shared to their friends in the news feed. A few people I know have commenced using it and already I know where someone's house is (with a map) and that someone was at my local McDonalds at 2am last night. Anyone who is friends on their profile could see this information and with the number of friends that some people have on their profiles these days, that's a lot of people to be telling where you are currently. The service I personally believe is dangerous and will encourage stalkers and so here is a guide on how to disable it if you do not wish to use it at all (like myself).
1. Log in to Facebook and open your Privacy Settings, by clicking the Account menu in the top right corner and choosing Privacy Settings.
2. In the Privacy Settings main screen choose the 'Customise Settings' link in the middle of the window
3. There are 3 settings you need to adjust on this page.
The first is the item called 'Places I Check In'. Click the drop down menu beside that and click Customise. Then set the visibility to "Only Me"
The next item is called 'Include Me In "People Here Now" After I Check In'. Simply Uncheck this tick box
The final item on this page is called 'Friends Can Check Me In To Places'. Click the Edit Settings button and then choose Disabled from the drop down box.
4. The final change you need to make is to stop applications from accessing Places data. To do this go back to the main privacy setting screen by pressing the Back button in your browser and then clicking 'Edit Your Settings' under the Applications and Websites heading.
The heading you want it called 'Information Accessible Through Your Friends'. Click Edit Settings. The two related to Facebook Places that need to be unchecked are 'Current Location' and 'Places I Check In To'. You probably would want to uncheck every box on this screen if you're interesting in good privacy as this stops applications from sending this information to your friends when they use applications on Facebook.
That's it on Facebook's end. The other important part of this process is disabling Location Services on your mobile device for Facebook. Facebook does not need access to your location to work properly on a mobile device, so to disable it from ever getting access to your location on iOS4, then open the Settings app, choose General, Location Services and if Facebook is in that list, then make sure it is turned off. If Facebook ever asks permission to access your location when you're using it, do not allow it access.
