FourSquare

After reading the article on FourSquare I have came to the conclusion that the reader this article was targeted at tech savvy business individuals who live fast lifestyles and are involved in the computer industry. Evidence to provide towards this outcome is in abundance; first and foremost the article is located in the technology section of the guardian website and the use of tech jargon by the author for the article. For example “Privacy advocates fear that Foursquare, along with other geolocation apps such as Gowalla and Google Latitude, are vulnerable to "data scraping"” this is a direct quote from the article if you are not proficient in tech jargon this is double Dutch. To a lesser extent this article plays to the paranoia crowd fuelling their obsessions with fear mongering.

FourSquare is a new form of social networking developed for Smartphone through the use of an app store. Its main purpose is as a tracking program using GPS from the Smartphone the app allows friends and family to follow the users movements, what they are up to, and takes into consideration these factors and builds up a portfolio on the user to display to other people what they are “in to”. FourSquare has many other features it gives recommendations on what to eat when visiting a restaurant or if a place is visited enough times benefits such as “freebies” or discounts are given.

“Life as a game” computing refers to the merger between the real world and the game world through apps like FourSquare with the use of “points scoring” by visiting places and receiving “medals” also. This means everyone who uses this app is in competition with each other over receiving benefits such as “free cups of coffee” from Starbucks and other reward benefits from companies involved in this app scheme. Because of this, things as simple as visiting a store can be a game and combines games with everyday lifestyle tasks.

Data scraping refers to building up a vast database of personal information on a user for either criminal use, be it finding out users routines on when they leave the house so it can be burgled, or even for a stalker finding out these routines so easily can lead to more criminal intent. Companies can also gather personal information through these social networking apps to target the user more effectively with product advertising.

The first paragraph sets out exactly what the articles main point was by describing a person’s interests, where she had been what she looked like, and where she is at present. This details what the program is capable of and what people are capable of finding out about a complete stranger.

The article conveys the message it is trying to send well it gets its info, facts, and points across well. The actual point the article is trying to achieve is that technology is now eliminating the last few bastions of private life people have left without them even knowing it. Fear mongering is the articles main attribute by fuelling people’s paranoia it succeeds in its message of technology is developing the western world into a sort of “police state” where everything is monitored and there is nowhere private. I would say this is the articles main strength area but the articles main weakness is the length of the article and the lack of outside opinions from an expert in the communication field to accompany his own view. As for the length of the article to some people it’s rather long to a person with short attention span. But the article is designed in a broadsheet format, not much pictures but filled to the brim with information.And being that the guardian newspaper is a broadsheet the article will be more aimed at middle class technology experts and business readers, instead of the tabloid readers who go for shock value big pictures and big titles which the article mostly lacks.