Foursquare Overshare

Yesterday, travelling through West Yorkshire on the train without any reading material, I had a play on Foursquare to see what the Android app would tell me was nearby as we went through Dewsbury. Imagine my surprise when roughly 80% of the results related to people's homes or the homes of their relatives!

It looks like people are altogether too happy to pinpoint their addresses on a map for the public - and then check in and out on Foursquare as a search for 'Mum & Dad's' reveals.


And a search for 'In Laws':


I felt compelled to leave a tip on one of the listings:


I wasn't the only one:


What I can't work out here is whether people listing their private residences - and the residences of unsuspecting relatives - is down to ignorance as to the public nature of those check-ins and listings, or whether it's simply down to a general shift in mentality, where people no longer care about keeping their private information private.

Certainly having your address visible on Foursquare and checking into other locations seems a bit reckless - as the creators of Please Rob Me demonstrated - but putting tips up about your mom's cooking?

Hopefully as people become more savvy about social media, they'll also start to protect their important details (such as when they're away from a specific address for a lengthy period) better.