A recent controversial girl-stalking app, which used Foursquare and Facebook data to allow strangers to stalk and contact girls without their knowledge, has been removed from the App Store and blocked from Foursquare over obvious privacy concerns.
The concern was originally reported by CultofMac, and has sparked a significant amount of media heat over its behavior. Facebook also reached out to CultofMac to point out that these sorts of apps can be blocked by adjusting user privacy settings.
The app pointed out the location of girls on Google Maps, and encourage users to make contact with the girls without either their knowledge or consent, which needless to say raises a number of disturbing issues, potentially making these girls targets for unwanted attention.
Perhaps most concerning, however, is that Girls Around Me developer i-Free claims to have pulled the app of their own volition, and claims that they haven’t done anything wrong, and are being unfairly targeted over the matter of privacy. Nothing like making an excuse for dangerous and inappropriate behavior.
The good news is that the app is now completely defunct, even for users that previously downloaded it, which is a major win for privacy and user protection in my book.
