A 22-year old girl stalked a 26-year old man in Scotland for nine months using Foursquare to track his whereabouts, according to a story in Metro.
They’d only met for a few minutes, the man told police, but since then he’s been “under siege” because of “Foursquare, a site which allows users to ‘check in’ to venues where you live and find other friends.”
“I put an update up one Sunday saying I was in Le Monde, on George Street, and she showed up when I was enjoying a coffee with my mates. Another time she appeared at Joseph Pearce’s, on Leith Walk,” the man told the Edinburgh Evening News.
“I try to ignore her but I get quite violent reactions. She’s told me ‘I’m going to destroy you’, called me ‘ugly’ and said she hates me. She can quickly switch from loving to hateful texts and sometimes she has conversations with herself.”
The experience has ruined social media for him. Eventually he stopped using Foursquare and closed his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The freelance designer said he called the police after the woman e-mailed his clients and sent messages using fake names pretending to be interested in employing him.
Bad press for Foursquare, and a little unfair. The stories don’t explain that Foursquare lets you tweak your settings to make your updates entirely private. Either the man was friends with the woman on Foursquare or he was broadcasting his Foursquare check-ins with Twitter–both unwise if you know you have a stalker.
The accuser is unnamed in the article so we can’t stalk him for a comment.
ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries
