TORONTO - A new Facebook application for smartphone users has made it easier for Canadians to coordinate coffee breaks at their local Tim Horton's and broadcast their most recent visits to their favourite local haunts.
As of Friday, Canadians can take advantage of Places, an application the social networking site released in the United States last month.
The new feature -- available for smartphones equipped with global positioning software -- allows users to publicize their movements as they go about their daily routines. Using the application, users can check into their current location and publicize their whereabouts to friends and other people in the area.
Facebook described the new application as a natural extension of the status update, a frequently-used feature that allows users to share their thoughts or actions.
"Lots of people were already sharing their location with friends via their status updates ('I'm at the CN Tower with Kelly')," the company said in a statement. "Facebook Places just makes this easier, more consistent and more social.
The Places application also gives users the ability to tag friends who are in the same location, though only if they have already checked in themselves. Facebook has given people the ability to accept or reject the tag depending on whether they would like to have their location broadcasted.
Facebook, which has been plagued with complaints about its privacy policy and even clashed with Canada's privacy commissioner, has taken a different approach with the rollout of the Places feature.
The application's default settings restrict location broadcasts to a user's friends, rather than making them available to the general public. People also have the option to further restrict their location details to a select group of friends.
At the time of the U.S. launch of Places, experts said the company had clearly learned from previous uproars around privacy settings and was applying the lessons to its latest feature.
"Following the flaps created by earlier launches, Facebook seems to be taking a more moderate approach to location sharing," Jules Polonetsky, a former AOL executive who now co-chairs the Washington-based Future of Privacy Forum, told the Associated Press. "Just about everybody recognizes location as something that you want to be in control of."
Earlier this week, privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart praised Facebook for implementing changes to its privacy policies in response to concerns she raised about the way the site shared information with third parties. At the same time, the privacy czar also indicated she was investigating other aspects of Facebook's practices, including the "like" button that users may click to show support for a product or service.
Users who want to explore Places can do so either through the Facebook application for iPHone or through touch.facebook.com
