Ok, I’m actually kidding, this service doesn’t exist, well at least not yet. But I was browsing my news feed today and saw an article about Blippy. Blippy lets you share what you’ve been purchasing. I’d forgotten all about Blippy, mainly because, well, I think it’s a stupid idea. Any of you that know me at all know that I am a social media enthusiast. I believe in openness, transparency and all the good, happy, rainbow and sunshine words that we all associate with the social web. But this, this goes too far. I think my own use of microblogging and geo-location apps poses a liability at times. After all, should strangers know when you are out of town or not at home?
I recently signed up for a service called Venmo that allows you to send money to people via text message. It could sound kind of scary but I actually think it’s pretty neat. There is one feature though that makes me feel a little funny. You can add “trusted people” to your account and those people can withdraw money from your bank account whenever they want. You have 24 hours to cancel it but then again, who checks their bank account everyday? This is sort of the lite version of sharing your ATM pin.
So there are loads of new technologies out there and some even sound kind of interesting, but I’m wondering how far this openness will go? Will you one day see that there is a service like what I put in the title of this post? Maybe. In any case, I’d love to hear your thoughts about Blippy, Venmo or any other service that gives you the security and comfort heebee jeebees. Do you think they’ll succeed?
What do you think about sharing your buying habits with the world or giving someone access to your funds?