Blippy – Why?

Blippy, a new social networking site designed to display personal credit card transactions automatically after purchase. Here we have a great example of peoples complete lack of interest in personal safety and security. Publicly posting up to every transaction, location, price, item, and frequency of use goes in direct violation against what we’ve come to know about personal identity protection.

Imagine, for a moment, that you were the criminal who is attempting to steal someone’s identity. One common known security practice put in place by credit card companies is flagging purchases made that exceed certain limits or go against a purchasing patterns that a customer generally follows. I know my card has been deactivated before because of unusual activity, be it several purchases in a day that don’t match my typical shops, or frequent use in another state. Blippy has made overcoming this security measure effortless. Simply steal a card, check Blippy, follow purchasing patterns.

Let us also take into consideration location tracking. This is already a problem among frequent social network trend like facebook and twitter. Users will frequently update their status via mobile phone or other device on what they are doing and where they are doing it. Aside from being extremely annoying to some, this allows other to track the exact location of an individual. In a more criminal state of mind, the mix of all these networks could allow them to track a target to a bar, wait until they have a few drinks, use social engineering to get close to their intent and lift a purse or card. Then they have free reign for the next several hours or possibly days to buy items following a trend from Blippy before they need to ditch the identity and seek a new one.

Obviously this is an extreme case scenario, but it’s also a case that would be virtually eliminated without constant updates to free and open social networks. Now I’m not against social networks, I use them, however I don’t constantly update them allowing people to track my movements. Most of these technologies help us all stay connected to the world around us and make it easier to pass information along. However we also have a great need arising to be more aware of the adverse effects these outlets could potentially have. 

Blippy is a prime example of social networking going too far. The negative effects present behind this idea far out-weight to positive advertising and social connection it might provide. If you would like to keep your friends up-to-date on shops or items of interest, feel free to post them. Not everything needs to be public and most certainly doesn’t need to be available instantly and automatically. I feel it’s only a matter of time until we see a headline involving theft or even death due to blippy’s publications.

How do you feel about this social networking idea, is it something you would use or feel is a good product? Leave your feedback and opinion.