I’ve just read an interesting article over at www.matthewbuckland.com about the future of social networking and although very interesting and exciting, it did make me raise my eyebrows with an “oh, really?” expression slapped all over my face. Matthew’s article outlines the concept of you being able to hold up your phone to an unsuspecting bystander and see information about them compiled from their social networking profiles and the internet in general.

Social stalking

As much as I love the developments of the internet and all of its associated technologies – in particular social networking, I can’t help but think that perhaps we are going too far. I can’t wait for the day that Augmented Reality properly arrives when you can hold your phone up to a building and know everything about it and so on, but for the same to happen with a human would surely be breaching their privacy, although there would be some control over this and that this kind of social networking would mostly display the things that you have posted on various social networking sites.

The difference is that with SN sites such as Facebook and Linked in you approve who can see your details and your posts (apart from your short public profile). Whereas, with the concept that Matthew outlines in his artcle, you would have information about the person you pass on the street before that person has had a chance to approve you.

I hope that a similar idea does eventually flourish though, as apart from the privacy issue – it really is a fantastic idea.