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Twitter Knows Where I Am; Gulp

Written on
Mar 12, 2010 
Author
Gavin Dunaway  |
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Twitter Knows Where I Am; Gulp

twitter_smallADOTAS – I log in to Twitter to share with the whopping 44 followers of @libeltheband the hottest rock shows in Brooklyn this fine Friday night and right below the status update on Twitter sits an icon and the option in bright blue to “Add [My] Location.”

After months of speculation, finally geolocation is upon Twitter. Thumbs up, guys.

But do I want Twitter knowing where I am? I sense a grimace crawling across my face. I’m a rebel, man; I don’t want nobody pinning me down! Especially not a microblogging service crawling with brands trying to “engage” me. Also I don’t know if I want to let my indie rock brethren know that I’m slogging it out in the financial district — I have a reputation to keep up, something about sticking it to the man.

Alas, I am a journalist for a website that covers social media, and geotargeting is the next big tool for advertisers via mobile, social networking sites, etc., etc. So I decide to take one for the team. I click the blue letters and a “processing” widget appears next to the gray words “Getting your location.”

What? I thought I was adding it — Twitter’s actually figuring out where I am? Like what floor I’m on? A shiver goes down my spine — but being freaked out is silly. All kinds of websites offer these kind of geolocation features. For brick’n'clicks retailers, it’s quite handy for figuring out where the nearest physical store is.

Firefox unrolls a warning bar at the top of my browser — “Twitter.com wants to know your location. Learn More…” Well, sure, I’d like to learn more — I click on the link and a new window pops open with an eerie yellow creature in a safari outfit contemplating a map. I’m guessing this is “Mozilla,” the friendly Internet surfing monster. Wow, nothing like a toothy beast to make me feel more comfortable about websites accessing my personal information.

Firefox lets me know that my privacy is extremely important and it would never, ever share my location without express permission. Location-awareness browsing is all using my location to find more relevant stuff for me (I like it when things are about me!). The browser uses Google Location Services to determine location via the computer’s IP address, information about the nearby wireless access points and a random client identifier assigned by Google that expires every two weeks.

Well, now that Firefox has appealed to my ego, I click back to Twitter, which helpfully has a transparent box with step-by-step directions — 1. Check “Remember for this site”; 2. Click “Share Location.” Simple enough, done and done.

Now underneath my status update box it says “in Civic Center.” Huh? Last time I checked I was in an office building — I click on the label and a drop-down menu appears, letting me show my location as specific as “Financial Center” or more general like “Manhattan” and “New York.” I switch it to Manhattan — ambiguous enough.

And then… Refresh. And then… I dunno, shouldn’t something be happening? When are the advertisers going to start targeting me? Are the evil conglomerates keeping tags on me right now? Geez, I’m really struggling to be paranoid.

Tweets pile up in my feed. Now I’m bored. I click the little X next to “in Manhattan.” It disappears, replaced by my old friend, “Add your location.” I click again. “in Manhattan.” Reappears. Wowee.

Apparently Facebook is going to start offering geolocation next month. The brands I like and follow will know where I’m at — when I feel like telling them — and try to get me to buy stuff based on that information, maybe even give me discounts I can’t refuse. Oh, the humanity…

Intrusive? Not really — it was my choice to turn on geotargeting, and it’s easy enough to turn off. Privacy, schmiracy — self-importance is all the rage in the modern age.

So I shrug, finish my morning tweeting and head over to TMZ — Corey Haim’s autopsy report is in! Awesome!





Reader Comments.

Its very reassuring to know you can click off the geolocation. Good information. Thanks.

Posted by Deb Best | 11:30 am on March 22, 2010.

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