Mobile users still wary of being found, survey says

Feel the need to "check in" on Foursquare or Facebook every time you saunter into a restaurant, browse the goods at your neighborhood grocery store, or cram into a rock concert? Well, if you, you’re still in the minority — and you’re also probably a guy below 40 — according to the latest research.

Turns out that only about 4 percent of Americans have tried a location-based service of any kind, according to Forrester Research (as detailed in a recent New York Times story), while only 1 percent use Foursquare, Loopt or other such apps on a weekly basis.

In other words, about 99 percent of those of us in the States still aren’t interested in sharing our current location with the world via our cell phones.

Meanwhile, of those mobile mavens who are tinkering with location-based services, a good 80 percent of them are men, and 70 percent of LBS-savvy users are between the ages of 19 and 35, according to Forrester.

While mobile users still seem skittish about sharing their whereabouts, just about every new phone on the market comes complete with GPS features of one kind or another, ranging from basic cell-tower triangulation to full-on GPS receivers and/or A-GPS ("assisted" GPS) technology, which augments GPS satellite tracking with data from cell networks — ideal for users who don’t have a clear view of the sky.

The whole "check-in" concept has caught fire, with Facebook Places being just the latest service that lets you tell the world that you’ve just walked into Big Apple Dry Cleaners. Yelp’s another one, and don’t forget Foursquare, which started the check-in parade.

Of course, just because you can share your location with everyone at any time doesn’t mean that you should, or that you’d necessarily want to.

Personally, I might have gotten more out of location-based services when I was a free-wheeling twentysomething (ah, those were the days), eager to see where all my pals were congregating on a Friday night. Nowadays, though, I’m not so anxious to tell everyone exactly where I am at any given time — especially after an embarrassing little episode the other night when my wife and I begged off dinner with one couple to attend a last-minute going-away party for another pair of friends.

Facebook Places had just launched, and I (stupidly) shared my location at the Lower East Side lounge where our departing friends were holding court, and tagged my wife for good measure. (After all, I needed to give Places a thorough test, right?) Oops — turned out my better half hadn’t exactly come clean with Couple No. 1 on why we’d canceled dinner. Scrambling ensued as we hurriedly deleted the location tag from my wife’s Facebook wall, hoping that her friend hadn't seen the incriminating tag yet. Ugh.

Why check in at all, then? Well, being the geek that I am, I do get a kick out of logging my presence at the latest and greatest restaurants in the city — and since Foursquare is designed like a game, I’m eager to earn more badges and become crowned as the "mayor" at my favorite hangouts.

On the more practical side, as the New York Times story points out, there are shopping apps like Shopkick, which offers up coupons if you shop at specific stores. (Foursquare has been getting into the "special offer" thing lately too.)

But as the latest statistics show, the location-based movement still has a long road to hoe before it goes mainstream. The biggest challenge lies in convincing users that the benefits of sharing their whereabouts outweigh the loss of privacy, or any potential sticky situations that may ensue (as I recently — and sheepishly — discovered).

What about you? Have you ever "checked in" anywhere (maybe on a regular basis)? Think location-based services are cool, or creepy?