Apparently my smartphone is telling everyone exactly where I am right now. Should I care?
Snapchat’s new virtual map, showing us each others’ locations in unnerving detail, has prompted concerns about privacy. But didn’t we give that up long ago?
So, er – can you tell where I am right now?
You don’t have to be on image-sharing app Snapchat to have heard about its controversial new “Snap Map”, which shows users their friends’ locations in near-real time, and disconcerting detail. Picture cheery cartoon avatars identified in not just suburbs, not even just streets, but at specific addresses.
The social media site is dusting itself off after slowing growth, plummeting value, and Facebook’s unabashed cannibalisation of all the features that made Snapchat popular – but the reaction to its new offering has been mixed.
To quote one woman on Twitter: “Snap Map is cool except I don’t want everyone knowing where I fucking live.”
