Social media is a great way to keep in touch with your friends, but it’s also a great way for shady people to follow you. Marketplace Money has a great story on one particular encounter that happened between a blogger/Foursquare/tweeter and an apparent jokester or stalker (she still doesn’t know). Apparently after checking into a local restaurant, a fan of hers called the place, asked to speak with her and suggested they hang out at a later time. He knew how to direct the restaurant hostess to the blogger by descriptions from various profile pages.
How did this all happen? The blogger’s privacy settings were set such that anyone could see her location and updates. It’s the same setting that many social tools such as Foursquare default to.
The lesson in all of this privacy madness? If you’re willing to dish out your exact location, be prepared for strange people to track you down. If you’re not interested in that happening, restrict your account so that only family and friends can see your updates.
[flickr image via dpstyles™