The other week I read something in ShortList that completely terrified me. I went home and showed it to Val, who was equally disturbed. No, we’re not talking about a weird murder mystery, a psychopath on the loose, or a new Saw-esque thriller starring Justin Bieber (although that would be pretty petrifying!). Instead what scared me was an article about a new Blackberry app….
Val and I are no strangers to technology, we have a Blackberry and an iPhone 4 between us and are both avid users of the app downloads these phones come with, but this new app being launched by Blackberry takes the advancements of technology to a whole new level of creepy. Let us tell you more….
The new BB Travel app allows its users to look up their flight details (which is useful), it alerts the user of any delays and boarding gate details (even more useful), it scans their emails for any flight bookings and creates an itinerary for them (which is great!) And it syncs to your LinkedIn profile to tell you which of your contacts is travelling, when they’re departing, and where they’re heading to, in order to determine the likelihood of you bumping in to them at the aiport (fantas…… wait a minute… that sounds really creepy!)
To us, this is a classic case of technology going that step (or more like a gigantic skip, hop and a leap!) too far. Why on earth would you want your LinkedIn connections, presumably including your boss and colleagues, knowing exactly when you decide to get away, where from and where to? Surely taking a holiday and escaping from it should involve a bit of privacy? The Blackberry app makers clearly disagree…
To be honest, we’re worried about what’s going to happen next. Don’t get us wrong, we love our smartphones and we love their apps, but we think we love our privacy just that little bit more!
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