Other than that, I think the author makes a strong case for people sharing their info publicly. Yes, they need to be aware about the implications but efforts MUST also be made to find and penalize apps that clearly misuse the data and violates people's intentions with which they shared the info in the first place.
The only solution to this is awareness on the users part and nothing else.
But every application has a specific action. See data is just well, data. What you do with it defines your application. Take something non-intrusive for a change, say the books a bookstore sells most. There's a wealth of information there. We could predict locally trending topics or the most common problems students face. But you could also predict what kind of audience the bookstore receives. It may not sound that creepy unless you find that the store gets a lot of depression related sales. That could get creepy very fast.
> The only solution to this is awareness on the users part and nothing else.
Awareness is extremely important even vital. But that is not it. Thousands of Girls Around Me apps probably exist and it is fairly possible though tough to find them. All I am saying is that efforts should be made in that regard as well.
Nothing I've read about the Girls Around Me coverage treats the women in a patronizing tone. If anything the question is more along the lines of "D'you think they know this can happen? Can it happen with my info?"
Sure, you can point the finger at the app developers but there's a certain amount of personal awareness and responsibility that people need to develop. Social-sharing is moving faster than most people are able to comprehend. Anything that encourages discussion is a good and useful thing in my view