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29 March 2024

Facebook 'Friends' can track your precise location

Facebook’s Nearby Friends lets people track you down

Published
By Joseph George

Call it yet another attempt at intruding your privacy or a great way to advance social meet ups. Facebook has rolled out a new feature where your friends are notified when you are nearby or vice versa – enabling friends to catch up for a coffee or even watch a movie together.

Thankfully, the feature enables you to choose which one of your friends will get to know when you are nearby and how long they will remain notified, thereby enabling you to avoid those who you really want to, according to newsroom.fb.com.

The feature will be soon rolled out into iOS and Android app first in the United States. Facebook announced that the feature will only work if both - you and your friend - are on each other’s white list. “Sharing your location with Nearby Friends goes two ways — you and your friends both have to turn on ‘Nearby Friends’ and choose to share with each other to see when you are nearby. Your friends will only be able to see that you are nearby if you share this info with them and vice versa.”

You can even turn on precise location which could come out really handy to trace a friend or a dear one in a really crowded market.

The travel-sharing feature allows a friend to notify you when they are traveling. “You’ll be able to see the city or neighbourhood they are in, including on their profile. When you see a friend visiting a place you’ve been, it’s the perfect opportunity to send a recommendation for a great restaurant,”

The market is already flooded with apps that enable you to share your location with friends.

Apple has its own app called Find My Friends.

That enables you to locate friends and family using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The free app uses Apple ID to sign into the iCloud and you can send your location details ( can be a temporary share with time limits) to those in your contacts or even send an email. “When your friend accepts your invitation using the Find My Friends app on their device, you can start following their location. Your friends can request to follow your location the same way.”

Similarly,  SocialRadar currently works on your iPhone and could soon be available on Android and Google Glass.



Glympse, for example is a free app that enables you to share your location in real time. Here again you can set to choose the people with whom  you want to share your location and how long you want them to see it.

The app is available for download on iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry devices. You can even send a Glympse via SMS, email, Facebook or Twitter and recipients can view it using any web-enabled device.

Marco Polo is another similar app available on iOS and Android devices.