Girls Around Me: One Woman's Defense of the 'Stalking' App

she has missed the main reason the app is creepy, which is that it panders to and encourages the woman-as-prey mentality.

While I agree it's a good wake-up call to people inadvertently sharing more than they'd like with the public, I don't think it matters so much that the data was already public, so much as the way the app puts that data to use.

Most other location-based services have some sort of unique value proposition or special utility using the location data, or are targeted to a specific genre or use-case.

Girls Around Me, although you could claim it has its own "use case," does nothing more than show you everyone who's checked in near you, with no qualifier other than the fact that they're female.

This, to me, is an inherently creepy service and an aggregation aimed strictly at hormonal males, with the dangerous side-effect of exposing females who may or may not be smart enough to defend themselves.