Re: Urthecast Possible Social Media Problems
Selina Ho recently blogged about the privacy concerns regarding the company “Urthecast.” One of the unique aspect of Urthecast is the real-time social layer the company promises to integrate onto their website. This feature allows other users to see the uploader’s location, current activites, and personal information.
I personally agree with Selina on her argument about the privacy issues with the social media proposal. Some people, for example myself, do not feel comfortable with strangers knowing my whereabouts and activities. During the class presentation from Mr. Wade Larson, he personally described his experience of knowing what the person down the block is listening to, or what the man three blocks down has tweeted ten seconds ago. It was a frightening thought. In order to minimize the privacy concerns, Urthecast should allow the users to choose who can see what they post, and know their locations. Instead, the company should approach a similar system as Facebook, where users are given the options to change their whereabouts, or even disable the location option.
