Over 16,527,939 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
By 2/04 5:55pm
A company that everyone trusts wholeheartedly with the troves of personal data you’ve turned over is reportedly developing an app that will further engender great faith and confidence from the public.
Just kidding, it’s Facebook. Facebook is doing another creepy thing because it is a day that ends in “y.”
Bloomberg reports that a number of sources close to the company revealed that Facebook is planning to roll out a location-tracking app in mid-March. The app would use GPS data to help users find nearby friends–hold back the tears, Foursquare!–but really it would allow the company to serve more specific ads.
If it stopped there, the app wouldn’t be much different from what’s already in the market. But Bloomberg’s sources also said that the app would collect location-data even when it wasn’t open, effectively tracing your location forever and ever and ever regardless of whether you’re actually using the app. God, the future sucks.
Bloomberg also points out that Facebook would most likely have to prompt users to agree to letting it track their location, but that “Facebook may have already gotten consent from its users to run such a feature.” Cue ominous music.
Facebook declined to confirm the report, but perhaps it’s time to rejigger your privacy settings. Yes, again.
Jessica Roy is a reporter for Betabeat and the New York Observer. Follow Jessica on Twitter or via RSS. jroy@observer.com
