Remember last year when Facebook had a Find Friends Nearby feature that allowed you to check if your friends are near you so you can stalk locate them and maybe join them for a coffee or something? Needless to say, the feature created many concerns regarding privacy, not everyone is a fan of being stalked, especially by some people they hardly know. Facebook then made an announcement that that was just a random test feature that wasn’t supposed to be released to the public before shutting that feature down.
According to Bloomberg, the social networking service is actually still working on a similar service and is scheduled for release by mid-March. Unlike last year’s service, the new deal will run on the background. We’re not quite sure how it will work exactly, Bloomberg only mentioned that you can find friends nearby, and that the new feature will help Facebook financially by allowing them to have location-targeted ads
I sure hope this will be an opt-in feature rather than something you’ll need to opt out of. Sure, I already get notifications of when my friends check into a nearby place but that’s because they checked in willingly and are aware that everyone on their friends list can see that. The last thing I would want is of someone suddenly sending me a message to meet up just because Facebook told them I’m nearby.
