On geolocation tracking and privacy...

Even though I work in IT and software development, I'm pretty old-school when it comes to using social networking tools. There's something about the younger generations who seem to have an urgent and almost obscene need to expose themselves on the web, to friends and strangers alike.

In retrospect, I don't think it has much to do with age, but rather the earnestness, to keep private life private. Even writing this journal requires conscious mental efforts in ensuring not too much private details are exposed. For those who know me, they would know the background and wouldn't need much explaining; for those who don't, why should they need to know anyways. I don't mind some general backgrounds, like ethnicity etc, but not much else.

The other day, I was reading about twitter coming out with new geolocational features, allowing tweet followers to track the twitters, every step of the way. To start with, I'm probably the last person in the world to care the mundane details and chores of friends (and strangers? forget about it). To me, those are not interactions among friends. Those are voyeuristic intrusions (and invitations by twitter users) into someone's life. To me, it's a very unhealthy development. So, it comes as no surprise that sensible individuals would reject the use of such geolocation features from twitters.

Sometimes, new product feature does not necessarily mean that I have to jump to use it. It's funny how the younger crowds on the web like to jump on board to beta-test everything that comes out, marveling it as god-send, without much afterthoughts. I wonder how many of them have considered that they can be tracked by both good and bad guys (stalkers, anyone?) alike. When you're young, there's certain sense of invincibility. They'll probably come to their senses as they mature into their 30s.