I'm a longtime fan of the online dating site OKCupid, which I think does a lot of things right in terms of user interface, social engineering, and data aggregation. So I recently downloaded their iPhone app just to check it out.
The OKCupid iPhone app at first glance seems like basically another way of perusing their thousands and thousands of profiles adjusted to work on a smart phone. It's nicely designed, pulling up relevant data, photos and connections.
But the app also apparently has a geo-locating feature. The app alerts you if someone that their algorhythms decide would be a good match for you is nearby. So that's I guess why I got the alert on my phone the other night.
Really not sure how I feel about it. Just felt a little creepy, like I was going to turn a corner and run into the person, holding up her phone with my OKCupid profile displayed. For now, I'm turning off the geo-locating sharing on my phone.
Am I just being paranoid?
Me too. It’s weird.
Oh great, now Beckto is stalking me. SERIOUSLY creeped out.
Huh. That might be a San Francisco-only thing at the moment. I’m on the road all the time in heavily populated OKC cities, haven’t seen anything like that.