Blaming the aggregators?

The "Girls Around Me" app pulls public location data for female users
from Foursquare / Facebook / etc., and shows you where they are.
Public outcry is now directed at the developer of the app.
<http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/04/02/1432257/worlds-creepiest-iphone-app-pulled-after-outcry>
Basically, it's like Please Rob Me, but without the social activism.
<http://pleaserobme.com/>

I'm not sure how to interpret this situation.  Directing outcry at the
app seems to imply that it's OK for my private/limited-release
information to get passed around in public channels, as long as nobody
uses it for nefarious purposes.  At one level, this seems kind of
sensible; do I care if my phone number is on the bathroom wall as long
as nobody ever calls me?  (Or, more apropos, uses it to figure out who
I am and publish what a dirty person I am.)  At a deeper level,
though, the simplest way to prevent these nefarious applications is by
better controlling access to data.  Or, to say it the other way
around, nowadays large bodies of data invite analysis.

Besides better judgement on the part of the app developer, what could
have improved this situation, in particular, which technical
mechanisms?  More usable privacy controls in the social media sources?
 GEOPRIV-like advisories against redistribution?

--Richard

Received on Monday, 2 April 2012 16:24:32 UTC