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Comment by Joeboy | Hacker News Reader

> Because to me there are two perpetrators in situations like these. Those who committed the crime, obviously, but also those who make apps like Girls Around Me

I have no moral problem with considering the Girls Around Me devs to be at fault, but in practice it's like getting angry with individual spammers. It's futile. Pretty soon others will leap onto the publicity created by the furore and create something functionally equivalent. It seems to me the practical approaches to improving the situation are a) Embarrass Foursquare, Facebook et al into not sharing the info, b) Educate people into being more careful what they put online or c) Work on alternative social networking infrastructure that's more respectful of people's privacy. Whether or not we get upset at the Girls Around Me people is just a distraction.

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> in practice it's like getting angry with individual spammers. It's futile.

Completely agree. In fact, I think the author makes that point later in the article too. What is worth highlighting is the fact that "Educate people about privacy" cannot work. People share things publicly with a lot of different motivations. A potential employer may be interested in where we usually travel to but so would a stalker too.

Instead of trying to discourage people from sharing such info, I think we need to standardize the associated intent with a user's data. Most of us won't be bothered by targeted ads but anyone surely will be about Girls Around Me.

> "Educate people about privacy" cannot work

I agree that it's unlikely to fix the problem in its entirety, but I'm a bit short of easy fixes and I still think it's an important thing to do. And, although it's a politically fraught area, I'm pretty adamant that we should not always conflate explaining the world's hazards with blaming people for shitty stuff that happens to them.

Indeed, it is a very important thing to include a mature explanation of privacy and it's importance in education. What I meant was that this is not going to fix this problem. We need to figure out ways to stop the misuse of user data.

Why? If you don't like it, don't use it.

Besides if somebody wanted to rape a chick he/she wouldn't need this app. They could simply wait outside close to where drunk girls would be likely to be.

> They could simply wait outside close to where drunk girls would be likely to be.

Hold on. What do you mean by that?

This is clearly a horrible violation of people's integrity and privacy. It's not about "chicks" getting raped. Would you wait for a Nerds around me and see people getting bashed by goons just like that?

It's a serious threat to people's security if it makes it easier to stalk unsuspecting people. Maybe I just misunderstood you but wouldn't the threat of just a single incident facilitated by such an app be enough to reconsider the importance of privacy?

No I would consider the rapist a rapist and, after he had his day in court, see him dragged of to a prison for a very, very long time.

As for the nerd basher, I would expect the same treatment.

It is not about the app, but the criminal. It is about accepting responsibility for ones actions.

And yes, I would say they have every right to make a nerd basher app, if they want to (although I guess they are less likely to have open facebook profiles).

I guess I did misunderstand you then. You're right. A rapist won't probably need this app. All I was trying to say is that leaving the rapist issue aside, this app is misusing unsuspecting people's privacy and personal info.

Just because the data is publicly available, it does not warrant such misuse.

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