Mobile social networking is the next frontier in technology, as companies race to adapt platforms like Facebook to our mobile phones. Marketers are not far behind, especially because there are 3.3 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide;

that number is far greater than the number of internet users. One report says that about 2 per cent of all mobile users already use their mobile phones for social networking, such as chat and multimedia sharing; it forecasts that this proportion will zoom to at least 12.5 per cent in a few years. Mobile social networks are appealing in part because companies can identify precisely where users are in the physical world. For example, the SpaceMe service from GyPSii displays a map that identifies your friends’ locations as well as photos, videos, and other information about them.

A Dutch network called Bliin lets users update their location every 15 seconds. 170 This enhanced capability creates some fascinating marketing possibilities – but perhaps it also raises some ethical red flags. What do you see as the opportunities and the threats as we inevitably move to a world where our whereabouts are known to others?