Greatest Invention in Human History Helps You Avoid Certain People

 

 

The era of antisocial networking has begun with the development of apps such as Cloak, which identifies locations of your contacts so you don't have to see them. Larry Greenemeier reports.  

Mar 28, 2014 |By Larry Greenemeier

You’re walking near the park when your iPhone chimes. It tells you that one of your many Foursquare contacts is enjoying a coffee at an outdoor café on the next block. So you turn on your heel and head the other way.
Welcome to the era of antisocial networking. Where you filter pictures of your friends’ kids out of your Facebook feed, replace inane tweets with those you actually care about and keep tabs on people you’d rather avoid.
The Cloak app, for example, collects location info from Instagram and Foursquare to let you know where your so-called “friends” are—so that you never have to see them. It scans their most recent check-ins, and plots those locations on a map. It can even alert you when the guy you owe twenty bucks to is nearby.
Cloak developers Brian Moore and Chris Baker say they came up with the idea after too many chance encounters with ex-girlfriends. They plan to expand Cloak to interface with other apps, including Facebook. And they insist their feelings won’t be hurt if they suddenly stop bumping into their Cloak-using friends.
—Larry Greenemeier