東西 | dongxi

Facebook finally announced their long anticipated geo-location functionality, Facebook Places. Like Foursquare and Gowalla, you’re now able to “check-in” to locations (and post it on your feed). So how is it different than Foursquare and Gowalla? While Facebook doesn’t currently offer “incentives” like badges or mayorships, it allows you to know of nearby friends. It also allows you to “tag” your friends at a location.

If you not a fan of your friends’ post of locations they’ve visited on Facebook (via Foursquare/Gowalla), well… it’s only going to get worse. Not only will these types of posts increase with Facebook in the game, but as with most things Facebook, the program itself is opt-out, meaning, unless you’ve tweaked your privacy settings already, there’s a good chance that you’re fair game to have your location posted publicly or have your location tagged by others.

Currently Places is only available on the iPhone app and certain browsers (via touch.facebook.com). The program just rolled out and privacy advocates are already calling Facebook out – we’re sure to see tweaks and updates in the near future. Meanwhile it might be a good time to recheck your privacy.

Check out CNET’s  how-to video on adjusting your privacy settings as well!