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Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

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Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#131

Post by userbinator »

michaelmior wrote: post #111

> the message locations have more than 5 decimal places of precision, making it possible to pinpoint the sender’s location to less than a meter. Precision is not the same as accuracy. Although the reported values may have 5 decimal places of precision, I find my location is often a bit off.

Indeed. ~2m is the limit of accuracy for a typical smartphone GPS - I've gotten down to 1.3m when standing in an open area for >10 minutes with 12 satellites in view, but that's an exceptional case.

In practice, accuracy will be in the 5-10m range.

It doesn't make it any less creepy though... which then begs the question of how the number of people wanting to send their location would change with how "approximate" of a location (i.e. rounding to some radius) they're sending. Nearest 100m? 500m? 10km? 100km? State? Country? Continent? ... Planet? I would probably be fine with the last one, but no more than that for anyone I don't know well.

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#132

Post by StavrosK »

mod wrote: post #119
StavrosK wrote: post #116

Hmm, where do you see this? I don't use Messenger, but many of my friends do, and I've never seen this. Is it only for Messenger-to-Messenger chats?

I couldn't get a screenshot with the map popped-up, but if you go to "see all" on the web, you can get a full-screen view with these little location pins. Hovering over them gives you a map. http://imgur.com/vloxbkI

Ah, thank you, these weren't in the small chat windows. Clicking on them gives you a full, browsable map, as well.

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#133

Post by dalore »

dmak wrote: post #32
paganel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the culture. When I hear "I'll be late 5 minutes" that usually means 10 or 15, "10 minutes late" means an actual 20 or 30 minutes, while everything higher than 20 minutes could mean an actual hour. I live in Romania.

"I'll be late 5 minutes" does not have the same set of expectations for "I am just five minutes away" which is what kanche said.

I'll be late 5 minutes means you're 10 minutes away (5 minutes to get there on time and 5 minutes of being late).

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#134

Post by dspillett »

nodata wrote: post #5
kanche wrote: post #2

The location you share with your friend is dead accurate, not an area but the exact gps point in map. I did not realize I was sharing location when the feature was first announced -- told a friend I am just five minutes away from his house: he replied no you aren't -- found this feature and switched it off for good at that moment, it's intimidating.

Or maybe not lie?

It may not have been a lie. It could simply have been a bad estimate, maybe he guessed he was about five minutes away but didn't know the area too well and was more then ten minutes away?

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#135

Post by pdkl95 »

kosei wrote: post #4

I'm not sure what value add this serves as an opt-out solution rather than opt-in. For people who have a strong desire to show their location, sure. But what possible reason could Facebook have to make this readily accessible to anyone you chat with on an opt-out only basis?

They could give the user a button or something to send their location into to whomever they are currently chatting with (to one person in person-to-person chat, or to the group in multi-user chat. This would give the user complete control over their data while still allowing most of the utility.

Of course, this wouldn't give facebook a detailed map of their user's movements.

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#136

Post by kuschku »

userbinator wrote: post #131
michaelmior wrote: post #111

> the message locations have more than 5 decimal places of precision, making it possible to pinpoint the sender’s location to less than a meter. Precision is not the same as accuracy. Although the reported values may have 5 decimal places of precision, I find my location is often a bit off.

Indeed. ~2m is the limit of accuracy for a typical smartphone GPS - I've gotten down to 1.3m when standing in an open area for >10 minutes with 12 satellites in view, but that's an exceptional case. In practice, accuracy will be in the 5-10m range. It doesn't make it any less creepy though... which then begs the question of how the number of people wanting to send their location would change with how "approximate" of…

My phone – which combines GPS with GLONASS – usually gets about 40m accuracy with just GPS, but with combined GPS and GLONASS I have about 24 satellites in view, even in buildings, getting better than 1m precision.

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#137

Post by chadgeidel »

michaelmior wrote: post #111

> the message locations have more than 5 decimal places of precision, making it possible to pinpoint the sender’s location to less than a meter. Precision is not the same as accuracy. Although the reported values may have 5 decimal places of precision, I find my location is often a bit off.

I'm always frustrated when I see non-significant precision used in articles. Even more so when they are technical in nature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#138

Post by thoth »

pmlnr wrote: post #108
thoth wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had 3 or 4 Meetup groups fold and migrate to Facebook, because Facebook offers basically the same features and some nice extras: allows private/hidden groups (invite only; Meetup can hide the memberlist and require approval to join but the group existence is still searchable) free (Meetup currently charges ~$70 for 6 months; source: I'm an organizer for a Meetup group and that's our semi-annual bill. I'm not sur…

maybe, but just maybe, paying cash is better than paying with every information available on your phone.

Phone? I didn't mention a phone; both Facebook and Meetup are entirely usable via their websites.

We have about 40-50 active and semi-active members (on Meetup), hold a fundraiser, and yet the organizers still have to chip in to make up the inevitable shortfall.

Whether or not to use Facebook (or Meetup for that matter) is something everybody gets to decide for themselves and preaching about what they should do is silly.

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#139

Post by copperx »

amerkhalid wrote: post #110
learnstats2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people make this lie, what they are really saying is: "Stop whatever you are doing and be ready and waiting for when I finally arrive". The negative consequences fall on the person receiving the lie. It's not a courtesy. It has long-term consequences to your credibility and trustworthiness. It is far better to tell the truth in this case.

Tardiness/lack of understanding of time is actually a huge problem in our culture . Most of us take it by default that other person would be at least an hour late. So we usually give an hour earlier than intended time when hosting a party or something. (We usually give actual time to our Western friends). However, this creates problem for people who actually show up on the given time. Now you have guests in the house…

Would "5PM sharp" do it?

Re: Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger

#140

Post by chadgeidel »

orthoganol wrote: post #43

I find it hard to grasp why any intelligent individual who knows what goes on with Facebook would still voluntarily remain on Facebook. "Ah but the social ostracization!", seemingly the main reason why otherwise intelligent, informed people do stay on Facebook, just doesn't hold up anymore, as too many cool, socially active 20-somethings I know or are acquainted with have moved off of Facebook, mostly in last 1-2 yea…

"Any intelligent individual" knows that all social networks track location/behavior. "Any intelligent individual" knows that DOJ/NSA/cell providers can track your position with your cell phone. "Any intelligent individual" knows that a collection of HTTP requests can quickly identify patterns in behavior and preferences. "Any intelligent individual" knows that a few purchases with the same credit card number builds a fairly precise understanding of age/demographic information.

What makes one person's personal privacy/communication breakover point better than another?

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