Facebook Is Creating a Smartphone App to Track the Location of Users
Facebook is reportedly developing a location-tracking mobile app, which the company is aiming to release by mid-March. The app will track the location of users to help users see which of their friends is nearby. If that’s not creepy enough, how’s this: the app would run even when the app is closed on a smartphone.
The report from Bloomberg notes that this app could help Facebook sell ads based on its users’ location and daily habits, though privacy concerns abound. This app is the result of Facebook’s acquisition of location-tracking startup Glancee in May 2012 and Gowalla in December 2011. Glancee’s goal was to “make it easy to discover the hidden connections around you, and to meet interesting people,” according to its home page.
Facebook released “Find Friends Nearby” last June, an app that essentially does the same thing as this purported location-tracking app. It was pulled within hours.
If widely adopted, this location-tracking app would certainly be something local businesses would be able to take advantage of. Though details are sparse, it’s not much of a stretch to envision Facebook giving merchants the ability to do nifty things like offer users within X miles a special deal.
