Facebook Lets You Stalk Your Friends

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ou may have noticed a new feature on your mobile Facebook app or your normal Facebook page called “Find Friends Nearby,” and it does just what it says. If you want to see if any of your friends are close to you—geographically—Facebook now lets you do that.

Not everyone is happy about this feature. Tech blog Read/WriteWeb has already christened it “the stalking app” because of the unique opportunity it offers would-be stalkers to track the objects of their misplaced affection.

But as with most privacy issues, especially ones involving Facebook, the reality is much less frightening than the paranoia. The feature is opt-in, so unless you choose to partake, no one will be able to track your movements offline, and even if you opt in, only your Facebook friends can find out where you are, not strangers.

This may be a problem if you’re the sort who friends everyone all the time, regardless of whether you know them even a little bit, but if you’re like us and you only add those people to your friends list with whom you’re actually, you know, friends, you’ve got nothing to worry about.