I had a good conversation with a friend of mind a few years ago. I was going to visit her and she was starting to give me driving directions. I told her that I probably didn’t need them because she had been broadcasting her location via her Twitter account. Surprised, we took a look at her timeline and she had no idea that she was broadcasting her location. A couple of clicks later and we were looking at her house on Google Streetview. All because the new Twitter client she was using had geo-location turned on by default … it was probably in the terms of use use but neglected.
A new utility “Ready or Not” is designed to help in the cause of tracking location of Twitter and Instagram users.
It describes itself as:
This app shows how people could use your social-media posts to find you in the physical world. It uses GPS data attached to Twitter and Instagram posts to create a map of where someone’s been posting from recently.
Try to find yourself, your friends, or your favorite celebrity! Where are you most likely to be at 2:00 on a Tuesday?
This app shows how people could use your social-media posts to find you in the physical world. It uses GPS data attached to Twitter and Instagram posts to create a map of where someone’s been posting from recently.
Try to find yourself, your friends, or your favorite celebrity! Where are you most likely to be at 2:00 on a Tuesday?
I poked around with myself and some of my friends with some mixed results.
- I couldn’t find myself which was good. I do make sure that auto posting my location is turned off. But, I was surprised that it didn’t identify that I checked in at Petite Côte during my dog walk tonight;
- I could find some locations from some Twitter friends that did make sense. I hope that they read this post and check to make sure that they know what they’re doing;
- I found some that were out and out incorrect.
How to use it? Just visit the site and enter a Twitter name. After a search, you’ll get the location results displayed on a Google Map or a message that no location could be found.
Rather than identify a particular person, I chose a commercial entity. In this case, it was one of the Big Three Car Manufacturers. A quick search later revealed posting from the following locations.
Those familiar to the location should recognize Windsor, Detroit, Woodward Avenue
Not included in the screen capture, but you’ll see when you visit the site, along the right side of you screen is the actual messages that help identify the locations.
The site isn’t perfect but the results are certainly interesting. Some who don’t know that they’re broadcasting their location might even call it alarming. Regardless of where you stand on the concept, it’s worth checking your own account and those of your close friends – you may decide to pass the information along to others.
If you are concerned, click the padlock to get instructions about to tighten down your location information.
It’s worth the time to check yourself out. Do it now.
Related articles
- Could you fall victim to crime simply by geotagging location info to your photos? (digitaltrends.com)
- iBeacons in iOS 7 and the Future of Micro-Location (setantablog.wordpress.com)
doug --- off the record 
Fantastic resource, Doug. I was glad to see that the only geotagged posts of mine were the ones I intended to be.
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