a) In public, observation is reciprocal (that is, you can see who is watching you) -- less universal in these days of CCTV, but traditionally this has generally been the case,
and
b) Public observation is real time and line of sight; FB "observation" may take place days, months or years later by persons you have never had an opportunity to see.
The long term consequences arising from these new constraints are not yet obvious.
The technology is here to stay. Information will be shared more easily in the coming years and it will only get easier to categorize people in the future based on their behaviors. So maybe instead of complaining about "bad companies" taking advantage of this, we should be encouraging people to be more accepting of differences. The problem isn't that a girl checked into a local bar. The problem is that someone wants to stalk/rape her. Scaring people into not checking in to somewhere (or not doing so publicly) is getting dangerously close to saying "well, she shouldn't have worn that short skirt if she didn't want to get hassled", which is a terribly flawed argument and ignores the actual problem.
There's an entire side of this that is overlooked whenever this debate pops up: All the freaks and geeks who thought they were alone because they were into different things can now find like minded people and know that don't have to feel alone. Look at the "it gets better" campaign. It's beautiful and has likely helped thousands of people. We should focus on the good stuff a little more often rather than focus on the potential bad stuff.