Girls Around Me App

The “Girls Around Me” app is used to locate women in the surrounding area through social media like Facebook. As the writer of the Forbes article points out “this is a great tool if you’re a stalker,” which is most likely why this app was recently pulled from the iTunes app store. Though Forbes writer Kashmir Hill seems to believe that these women want to be found since they are generally savvier when it comes to privacy settings. Luckily the writer of this article Erik Kain has more sense and goes to discuss why this is not so “This is true—some women want to be found this way, I’ve no doubt. A dating app that you mutually sign on for, however, is an entirely different beast than an app that only lets other people find you… Girls Around Me is a lopsided application, placing all the power in the hands of the men using the app.” Kain goes onto to discuss how most likely the women who are shown are most likely not so tech savvy as those not shown. Whatever the reasons why these women pop up on the app does not matter, so much as the app itself which encourages men to find women; whether they want to be found or not. Below is a link to the article. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/06/the-problem-with-the-girls-around-me-app-isnt-that-women-are-lazy-about-privacy/