Facebook adds new “Nearby Friends” feature that enables broadcasting your location with friends
On Thursday, the social network announced the first significant feature Called Nearby Friends for its core product in over a year, it lets users see which of their Facebook friends are in physical proximity to them.
With Nearby Friends, Facebook is offering users a direct connection with each other that it has never offered before. The feature works on devices running both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.
Working :
If users enable it — found in the “more” section at the bottom right corner of the app — they can see what city and neighborhood a friend is in, how many miles away they are, and how long ago they were there. They then have the option to message or call the friend to make plans.
Facebook said it’s not using its new Nearby Friends feature to target ads yet, but after I asked why it’s tracking “Location History” it admitted it will eventually use the data for marketing purposes.
But the new Facebook “feature” is pretty dangerous. It is sending your location information on a continuing basis into a network run by Facebook. Among the problems: your GPS is always on if you use this APP, meaning you can be followed by hackers, intruders or government agencies more or less at will. And Facebook itself, which is not a secure system, also can be targeted by the same folks.
