Who’s responsibility is it when you use a social media site to notify people of your location?

The other day I became major of my local William Hill, though at this point I would like to point out that I’ve checked in twice and usually just because I’m tweeting something side splitting funny my girlfriend says when choosing a horse or a football team.

When it posted to my twitter followers that I was collecting my winnings from William Hill, it got me thinking, who would be responsible if I got mugged when leaving William Hill?

I don’t intend to answer the main question as I’m clearly not anyone with an ounce of legal training. Though my initial thought was that its the users risk, as they have made the choice to check in. However I think there are a few things to take into consideration.

Does it change once I leave the building?

You could argue that its the same as stealing? Is the risk the venues while I’m inside the building and once I step over the boundary line does it become mine? As it is the case with theft, its only theft once you cross the boundary and before hand its conspiring to commit theft.

My view point on this is that its still the users responsibility. I think this is the case with some one looking at your check in history or favourite places.

What if the venue/event is offering you an incentive to check in?

As they are offering an incentive, are they making you declare your location and therefore taking on the risk? Or it that still the users decision to take up that offer by checking in? I think you then would go into a more complex area of checking in, would it depend on the incentive. I can imagine if its 10% off then it would still remain the users risk, but then it would change if the incentive was something free or better service. Though this level of blurred grounds would cause a lovely legal grey area.

What if the venue isn’t official?

Is it the responsibility of a brand to make sure that all the venues/stores are listed correctly? If not is that exposing the business? Then you can start to dig down even more, you can start to take into account opening hours and whether the business is responsible for every check in even when the place is technically closed.

All these questions are still unanswered and I would imagine they will remain that way until some one brings it to court, as per usual!

I am a big fan of foursqaure and have been for over a year now, admittedly I did close my account one when I lived in Leeds due to some immature users checking in to my apartment complex, I mean who cares if your the major of ICE Apartments? Foursquare has given me some fantastic tips over the last year, and more recently some great deals. I must of saved over $100 while I was in America last, including free wings, discounted beers and best of all BOGOF mini golf (a huge family activity, made even sweeter that @jackgrimley and I won every game!). So I will keep on using it, and accept the risk, I mean I go into William Hill, that pretty much shows I can tolerate risks!