ACLU Bemoans Facebook Places, but Many Are Fans

Facebook’s highly anticipated “Places” feature is here, and the ACLU is not happy about it. It's taken issue with features that allow your friends to check in for you and allow non-friends to see where you are via “Here Now." It declares (bold theirs) "in the world of Facebook Places, 'no' is unfortunately not an option." Are we all in trouble?

• Nah, says Tech Crunch. Facebook is “making a real effort to dial up privacy with Places,” writes Evelyn Rusli, noting that it’s easy to opt out of both those features (click here for detailed instructions on how to do just that).

• You're fine if you have a brain, says Walt Mossberg, who calls Places' privacy controls "mostly logical" on All Things Digital. He notes that it “omits some annoying aspects of its competitors, like the game features,” but is also “more stripped down and leaves out some attractive features others include,” like the ability to give suggestions.
• But FourSquare might be in trouble. “I don’t want to preemptively say that Foursquare is about to killed by Facebook,” writes Nick O'Neill on All Facebook, but “I’m not quite sure what value-add Foursquare brings to the table at this point.”
• Making the “punking,” as O’Neill calls it, of FourSquare even worse: The logo for Places is "a 4. In a square," notes Greg Kumparak on TechCrunch. Enough said.
• And just because we think you should know this, Facebook apparently announces new products ... with a gong.

Click here for more on the Places launch. (More Facebook stories.)