Facebook Places launch sparks privacy concerns

Facebook is rolling out a new feature today, Facebook Places, which allows users to let their friends know their whereabouts – and a new privacy row is brewing.

The roll-out, which will initially be limited to users in the United States comes the day after Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, warned a Wall Street Journal reporter "apparently seriously" that every young person would one day be entitled to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to shake off their youthful internet indiscretions.

Google should know all about internet privacy – or the lack thereof. Its Gmail email service encourages users to archive rather than delete their old messages – and it was at the centre of a row earlier this year when it launched its social networking tool, Buzz. Google automatically signed up Gmail users to Buzz, allowing other users to see private contacts until Google caved in and changed the default privacy settings. Then there's iGoogle, which allows users to personalise their Google search page – and Google to record every web search you ever make.

In the tradition of the disastrous Google Buzz launch, Facebook Places will be automatically switched on when it rolls out, which means users will have to opt out or risk sharing their location with everyone in their network.

Facebook Places is intended for smartphone users, who will be presented with a list of nearby venues, any of which they can select to 'check in'. The new service has already been accused of being a rip-off of existing location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla.

Creepily, Facebook Place users can also check in their friends if they are with them, although you can remove this 'tag' or change your settings so that nobody can do this to you. In a sop to privacy campaigners, under-18s will only be allowed to share their location information with their immediate friends – and their current position will only be available to friends at the same place.

But Facebook Places could be the spur that many users need to begin a judicious cull of those so-called 'friends' with whom they never interact and don’t really trust with such personal information, a fact that the application's product manager Ana Yang appears to acknowledge:

"If it means removing friends you don't know or even blocking someone, we support all those things because you'll have more control. People should be establishing the social norms that it's OK to block the sketchy ex-boyfriend and in some ways it's easier to do this on Facebook than in real life."

Looked at from this point of view, an optimist might hope that the more intrusive the web becomes in our lives, the more careful people are likely to become regarding to whom they give away their valuable personal information.    ·