Concerns Mount About Smartphone Apps That Draw Others' Personal Information
CHICAGO (CBS) -- When you go on a social networking site to tell your friends where you're eating or playing, don't think perfect strangers aren't seeing that as well.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, Girls Around Me, Highlight and SceneTap are among the smartphone apps that take in information about where you are and tell people you don't know all about you.
This has led to consequences that make some users uncomfortable. USA Today says Girls Around Me was taken down earlier this year after it was labeled a "stalker app."
It allowed a man to see what women had checked into a particular bar near him on Foursquare, and check out that woman's Facebook profile as a means of deciding whether or not to approach her.
SMS, the Russian-based maker of the app, defends Girls Around Me and says all the information it displays is already public, USA Today reports. SMS plans to mount a new version of Girls Around Me sometime soon, the newspaper reports.
The other apps are also causing alarm. The Highlight app notifies friends and strangers where a user is if that user has similar interests, and Scene Tap uses facial detection software to tell you the ages and genders of people in a crowd.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports
