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World's Creepiest iPhone App Pulled After Outcry
Hugh Pickens writes "Ben Grubb reports that an iPhone app that essentially allowed users to stalk women nearby using a location-based social networking service has been pulled from the iTunes app store by its developer after an outcry of criticism including a comment by Gizmodo labelling the 'Girls Around Me' app as the 'world's creepiest' app and a comment in The New York Times Bits blog, which said it 'definitely' won the prize for being 'too creepy'. The 'Girls Around Me' app utilized publicly available data to show a map with women who had checked-in to locations nearby using Foursquare and let users view Facebook information of those ladies if they had tied their Facebook account to their Foursquare account and if their Facebook account privacy settings were lax enough to allow any user to access it. The promotional website used for marketing the app states that the service 'helps you see where nearby girls are checking in, and shows you what they look like and how to get in touch, adding 'In the mood for love, or just after a one-night stand? Girls Around Me puts you in control! Reveal the hottest nightspots, who's in them, and how to reach them.' Foursquare yanked the Girls Around Me app's access to its data, which in turn led to the app's developer removing it from iTunes as it didn't work properly. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the company behind the app defended its creation: 'Since the app's launch till last Friday nobody ever raised a privacy concern because, again, it is clearly stated that Girls Around Me cannot show the user more data than [what Foursqure or Facebook] already does.'"
I bet it honestly never occured to the guys who did this thing that someone might use it for creepy stuff. Sometimes you can do something with innocent enough intentions only to realize later "Holy shit, someone could use this for some pretty bad purposes!" So it may be best to cut them some slack and assume that they honestly did just mean this as a way for willing/non-creepy people to meet up in meatspace. I bet there are a lot of similar apps out there being used for stuff that they were never designed for, particularly in an age where way too many young people think nothing of posting every detail of their life and personal musing online for the world to see.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Girls Around Me cannot show the user more data than [what Foursqure or Facebook] already does.
Seriously, if you're concerned about creepy bastards knowing where you are, don't tell the entire bloody internet
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Funny thing is, the "outcry" of the users affected should be either directed at FB/4square, or, more appropriately, at the users themselves. It's your own damn fault that you have made so much data publicly available that this is possible. Get your head out of your ass, you're the only one you have to blame...
weinersmith
Pulling the app is a classic case of denial. It's fairly easy to create an app like this, the information is all publicly available. If people are honestly concerned about their privacy they should either stop posting the details of their lives on-line or they should lobby the companies involved to provide better privacy controls. Pulling the app is a typical case of shooting the messenger.
If the app was billed as "Find out who's around you!" instead of "Find the girls around you!", it'd do exactly the same thing, and continue to be sold.
Of course, anyone could still write this app very easily because people are publicly publishing their location information. (Duh). The story should have been "Look what people can do when you tell literally everyone in the world where you are" instead of "person makes creepy app".
AccountKiller
A " girl " is like "your mom", but younger and not genetically related to you.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It seems to me that, if it's showing you people around you, that's the opposite of stalking. You're not tracking any particular person, you're looking at the publicly available info of people near you. Traditional Twitter and Facebook usage is closer to stalking than this is, since they're used for following the activities of specific people.
No, not because I want to stalk women. But maybe it will eventually make people aware that their privacy is something that should be kept, well, private.
Yes, I'm aware of the implications. Then again, I have zero sympathy for stupid people.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
For my part i think we should thank that developer. He show to everyone how data protection laws are too lax or inexistant. He show how some people doesn't understand how a little bit of what seems to them innocuous data can bit them in the ass very hard. And perhaps when a certain number of problem will show up in the news and courtrooms due to the availability of these datas, perhaps then the legislator will do something about it under the pressure of the frightened populace.
If I recall correctly (as this news isn't exactly new... it's a few days old), the app wasn't pulled because of the outcry. It was pulled because Foursquare revoked the app's access to their APIs because it violated their terms of service which dictated you aren't allowed to use the APIs to aggregate information.
Any bets on whether a "guy around me" app would have raised any inkling of similar outcry?
Actually, despite the name, the app could show either males or females. (Yeah, I know, it's not cool to RTFA.)
R.Mo
I'd be willing to file this under "creepy, but inevitable". Given the amount of data these people posted about themselves publicly, it'd only be a matter of time until an app like this was made, and it'll only be a matter of time until one is made again.
Rather than being creeped out about it, and removing it, someone should just take a lesson from judo, and use the weight of the users against them. Someone should just create a Firesheep-like app that identifies users of the system, and when they accessed your data. Call it "Doucher Alert". If the alert goes off, and five minutes later you get hit on by a guy who "was just passing by, baby", then you can safely cross them off your list. Let the morons self-identify. Don't take away their tools, but just make sure the toolbox contains a long enough length of rope.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
This is the first thing that came to mind.
Guys, really? Stop being so anti-social and awkward. Its a safe bet to assume there are women in a bar/library/Starbucks. A line you can come up with on the spot such as 'I like those shoes/hairdo/etc' will get you a lot further than saying you were also at locations X, Y, and Z as she was. From someone you've never met, that comes off of creepy, regardless if he/she posts it on myspace/fb/G+.
Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
No we get constant bombardment of guilt. You looked at a 17 year old and felt funny in your pants? pervert. You admired a child's smile too long, pedophile. Took a picture of a child you dont know in the park? pedophile. Dared to stare at a woman's heaving and mostly exposed chest, pervert.
Good-bye
You're the one who brought up rape, GP never mentioned it
By "getting what she deserves" and "taught a lesson," I parsed that as being treated like a sex toy/arm candy and tossed out when she gets boring, not treated with respect, etc. And why not?
You want to act like Snookie, you've got no business bitching about being treated like Snookie.
We are just barely entering the erra when male abuse victims are taken seriously by police.... stalking? we are still a while off there both legally and socially.
A while back I had a female stalker, mostly I got laughed at or got outright nasty looks. A lot of guys picture stalking as this wonderful thing they would love to have happen and see other guys who are not enjoying the experience as not being grateful.
And the girls just had this 'but you are guy, it is different' dismissive attitude. Even worse some took her side with the idea that it was wrong of me to reject her, that it just was not acceptable for guys to not accept a girl's advances.
Well, that's one opinion. Do you think this would be somehow different than knocking on a strangers door to ask if she'd like to go out with you? Sounds a little creepy to me. And a lot pathetic.
I sure as hell wouldn't respond to a text message from some random person who thought we could be friends. I'd probably tell them to fuck off or not even reply.
Maybe nobody ever told you that, but it's creepy nonetheless. It sounds like the years of "a/s/l" which everyone got bombarded with on chat rooms -- bunch of lonely pathetic guys thinking they'd put their swerve on and assume and try to hit on every suspected female in the vicinity.
If you want match.com, go there. I don't give FB enough information to try to infer people I might like to know. I sure as hell don't want random internet losers to think we should be friends.
I'm sorry, but as a guy even I can see how some random guy going "mmmm .... girl ... will you be my friend" would be somewhat creepy.
Most especially since this app is mining through other services to get this information. If the women had signed up for a "introduce me to random guys" kind of thing, sure. But they're most likely wondering who the hell you are and WTF you're texting them for.
This is kind of like standing at the door of the mall and asking every pretty girl who walks in if she'd like to go out with you. In real life, that would likely lead to security or the police having a little chat with you.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Why is it creepy to have all the same information you'd have if you asked a friend of hers?
The "creepy" math is simple: woman finds man attractive, then all advances are "romantic"; woman finds man unattractive, then all advances are "creepy". There's no deeper meaning.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
it's making sweeping (and frequently incorrect) remarks about 50% of the population
Also frequently correct. When you really look at sexual attraction, what motivates it is often unflattering. Being attracted to "confidence" is just socially acceptable code for power or dominance. This is often related to wealth, another thing to which you're not supposed to admit to being attracted. Men have a simpler drive, but we're usually told to be ashamed to look at a woman's body - this is objectification, etc.
On the one hand, it's easy to see why stigmas like these exist: looking no further than a woman's body is an easy path to misery, men who are the most dominant are often also the most abusive. Our biology is what it is, however, and it does us no good to just deny it. These sorts of comments are just people venting their frustration, don't make too much out of it.