avoiding evil bob
if you're the type who likes to share everything about yourself with the world, you don't need to worry about evil bob. all evil bob (or any "evil" person) is likely to find out from foursquare is your home address, your name, what you look like, where else you might be found and any information you post on twitter or facebook if you link them to your foursquare account.but if you got all super-exicted about foursquare and twitter but didn't quite think through the connections, here are some things to consider:
- if you want to make your home a "venue" so you can check in there, don't actually set it as your home address. use a spot up the road or something.
- don't call the place "my house" or obvious things like that. calling it "the super huckleberry hunting lodge" will make it harder to find your home by searching foursquare venues.
- remember that the only person likely to check in at your house is you. when only one person has visited what looks like a home address, it's not hard to deduce who lives there.
- think about whether you want to broadcast your location on twitter. if you have an unprotected twitter account, it's easy to find foursquare updates.
- don't trust the systems to protect your privacy. even if it's not obvious to you, there may be ways for people to find you and the locations you check in at.