Difference between revisions of "Girls Around Me"

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'''Girls Around Me''' was an application available on the App Store and for Android that used geo-location services to link location with personal profile data. The app was created by the company SMS Services (12) and downloaded over 70,000 times (8).
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The app opened to a map with images of girls from their Facebook profiles pinned to where they were currently located. All one had to do was allow their mobile device to use their current location, open the app, and get a display of women around them. After looking through the images that appeared, they could click on a specific target and gain access to her Facebook profile for more information (1). The app also allowed men to be found; however as the name implies, it defaulted to women (3). To use the app a user must have "energy" and once a user ran out of energy they were required to buy more or wait for it to reload before they could continue searching (1).
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==How it Works==
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Girls Around Me works by tapping into Foursquare and using Facebook profiles that girls have linked to their accounts to provide all of their information (1). Foursquare works by using geo-location services that both show your location to other users, and make connections between real-world settings and your location. For example, someone can use Foursquare to let others on Facebook know that they just went to ‘that new restaurant in town.’ Smartphones have GPS chips inside them that use satellite data to determine your location, and applications such as Google Maps can then use this to express your location on a map interface. Recently, cell phone towers have also been used to approximate location along with proximity to Wi-Fi networks (2). To use Girls Around Me a Foursquare account was required, and after registering the application determined your current location and proceeded to scan Foursquare for the girls who had checked in recently nearby. It then used linked Facebook accounts to provide the user information about the women he was seeing. The user was also required to log in via Facebook, effectively exposing their information to others as well (3).
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==Controversy==
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Girls Around me was an extremely controversial application with many ethical concerns. (see “Ethics”).
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Some believed that the app should not be allowed because it aggregated information from Foursquare/Facebook users without their knowledge or permission. This app has been described as an app for stalkers and rapists. The app first gained attention from an article written on “Cult of Mac,” drawing attention to its existence and the twisted ways it could be used. The main point of controversy was that the app developers weren’t doing anything illegal. Both kinds of information from Foursquare and Facebook were set to be publicly available by the users themselves; however, they were often unaware of this fact. SMS Services argued that their intent was not meant to be creepy in any way, and that the app was meant just as much as a way to avoid “ugly women” as it was to find attractive ones (8).  SMS Services argued back that the app was in fact doing nothing illegal, and was not intended for any unethical uses.  They argued that it does not allow a user to track one individual person or search for them nearby, it just “allows the user to browse the venues nearby, as if you passed by and looked in the window” (9).
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However, there was another side to the argument. Some women fought back saying that maybe they would actually like their information to be shared to men who were searching (8). According to a recent study by Pew, women are actually more responsible and savvy as it comes to keeping up with Facebook privacy settings (10/11). Writer Kashmir Hill (for Forbes.com) argues that many have become comfortable in this increasingly social and public world with exposing their information in order to make connections with new and more people. The backlash against the app made it appear as though all men were sexual predators and all women were damsels in distress who must be protected (8).
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==Removal==
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After the article was written about Girls Around Me on ''Cult of Mac'' on March 30, 2012, the app gained extreme media coverage. Later the same day, Foursquare banned Girls Around Me’s access to their public application programming interface (API), rendering the application useless.  The application was then removed from the market by the creators because it was unproductive to continue selling the app for the time being. SMS Services announced in April that they will be continuing to develop the app and hope to release an updated version in the future (13).
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==Similar Applications==
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*Grinder (4)
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*Blendr (12)
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*Creepy  (5)
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*Glancee (6)
 +
*Spokeo (7)
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 +
 
 +
==Ethical Concerns==
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There are numerous ethical concerns related to geo-location services and apps.
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 +
The first ethical concern regarding geo-discovery is with privacy. The app itself has raised awareness of Facebook and Foursquare privacy concerns; for many, it was a wake-up call. Women (and men) did not realize that their data was public and could be combined in such a creepy way. All of their actions have been legal, but it is possible that they have still been unethical. The question here is whether Girls Around Me needs to gain approval of the women being traced or if Foursquare needs to monitor who it makes its information usable to outside of the app itself. This app brings into question the issues of personal safety and stalking.
 +
 
 +
Similar apps have also made easier the acts of infidelity and cheating. Pulling up a map of women makes this type of action much more accessible, and apps (other than Girls Around Me itself) also allow for filters and searches for specific qualities desired.
 +
 
 +
Another ethical concern is with the issue of profiling. If Girls Around Me can specifically target women (other apps go as detailed as to sort by age range and other qualities), what is to stop them from turning into racial or religious profiling services? If a user has made their ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sexuality, or other characteristic publicly available, this app can easily be turned into a stalker or predator’s dream.
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==See Also==
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-Online Dating
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-Recommender Systems
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==References==
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*1. http://girlsaround.me/
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*2. http://www.pcworld.com/article/192803/geolo.html
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*3. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/girls-around-me-ios-app-takes-creepy-to-a-new-level/
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*4. http://grindr.com/learn-more
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*5. http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/
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*6. http://www.glancee.com/
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*7. http://www.spokeo.com/
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*8. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/04/02/the-reaction-to-girls-around-me-was-far-more-disturbing-than-the-creepy-app-itself/
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*9. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/03/31/girls-around-me-developer-defends-app-after-foursquare-dismissal/
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*10. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/24/are-men-more-reckless-than-women-on-facebook/
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*11. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/09/blendr-a-smartphone-app-to-broadcast-im-single-and-looking/
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*12. http://www.pcworld.com/article/252996/girls_around_me_app_voluntarily_pulled_after_privacy_backlash.html
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*13. http://www.cultofmac.com/tag/girls-around-me/

Revision as of 22:40, 12 October 2012

(Back to Index)

Girls Around Me was an application available on the App Store and for Android that used geo-location services to link location with personal profile data. The app was created by the company SMS Services (12) and downloaded over 70,000 times (8).

The app opened to a map with images of girls from their Facebook profiles pinned to where they were currently located. All one had to do was allow their mobile device to use their current location, open the app, and get a display of women around them. After looking through the images that appeared, they could click on a specific target and gain access to her Facebook profile for more information (1). The app also allowed men to be found; however as the name implies, it defaulted to women (3). To use the app a user must have "energy" and once a user ran out of energy they were required to buy more or wait for it to reload before they could continue searching (1).


How it Works

Girls Around Me works by tapping into Foursquare and using Facebook profiles that girls have linked to their accounts to provide all of their information (1). Foursquare works by using geo-location services that both show your location to other users, and make connections between real-world settings and your location. For example, someone can use Foursquare to let others on Facebook know that they just went to ‘that new restaurant in town.’ Smartphones have GPS chips inside them that use satellite data to determine your location, and applications such as Google Maps can then use this to express your location on a map interface. Recently, cell phone towers have also been used to approximate location along with proximity to Wi-Fi networks (2). To use Girls Around Me a Foursquare account was required, and after registering the application determined your current location and proceeded to scan Foursquare for the girls who had checked in recently nearby. It then used linked Facebook accounts to provide the user information about the women he was seeing. The user was also required to log in via Facebook, effectively exposing their information to others as well (3).


Controversy

Girls Around me was an extremely controversial application with many ethical concerns. (see “Ethics”).

Some believed that the app should not be allowed because it aggregated information from Foursquare/Facebook users without their knowledge or permission. This app has been described as an app for stalkers and rapists. The app first gained attention from an article written on “Cult of Mac,” drawing attention to its existence and the twisted ways it could be used. The main point of controversy was that the app developers weren’t doing anything illegal. Both kinds of information from Foursquare and Facebook were set to be publicly available by the users themselves; however, they were often unaware of this fact. SMS Services argued that their intent was not meant to be creepy in any way, and that the app was meant just as much as a way to avoid “ugly women” as it was to find attractive ones (8). SMS Services argued back that the app was in fact doing nothing illegal, and was not intended for any unethical uses. They argued that it does not allow a user to track one individual person or search for them nearby, it just “allows the user to browse the venues nearby, as if you passed by and looked in the window” (9).

However, there was another side to the argument. Some women fought back saying that maybe they would actually like their information to be shared to men who were searching (8). According to a recent study by Pew, women are actually more responsible and savvy as it comes to keeping up with Facebook privacy settings (10/11). Writer Kashmir Hill (for Forbes.com) argues that many have become comfortable in this increasingly social and public world with exposing their information in order to make connections with new and more people. The backlash against the app made it appear as though all men were sexual predators and all women were damsels in distress who must be protected (8).


Removal

After the article was written about Girls Around Me on Cult of Mac on March 30, 2012, the app gained extreme media coverage. Later the same day, Foursquare banned Girls Around Me’s access to their public application programming interface (API), rendering the application useless. The application was then removed from the market by the creators because it was unproductive to continue selling the app for the time being. SMS Services announced in April that they will be continuing to develop the app and hope to release an updated version in the future (13).


Similar Applications

  • Grinder (4)
  • Blendr (12)
  • Creepy (5)
  • Glancee (6)
  • Spokeo (7)


Ethical Concerns

There are numerous ethical concerns related to geo-location services and apps.

The first ethical concern regarding geo-discovery is with privacy. The app itself has raised awareness of Facebook and Foursquare privacy concerns; for many, it was a wake-up call. Women (and men) did not realize that their data was public and could be combined in such a creepy way. All of their actions have been legal, but it is possible that they have still been unethical. The question here is whether Girls Around Me needs to gain approval of the women being traced or if Foursquare needs to monitor who it makes its information usable to outside of the app itself. This app brings into question the issues of personal safety and stalking.

Similar apps have also made easier the acts of infidelity and cheating. Pulling up a map of women makes this type of action much more accessible, and apps (other than Girls Around Me itself) also allow for filters and searches for specific qualities desired.

Another ethical concern is with the issue of profiling. If Girls Around Me can specifically target women (other apps go as detailed as to sort by age range and other qualities), what is to stop them from turning into racial or religious profiling services? If a user has made their ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sexuality, or other characteristic publicly available, this app can easily be turned into a stalker or predator’s dream.


See Also

-Online Dating -Recommender Systems

References

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