Imagine that Tinder fornicated with Facebook and had a baby. The product of that union would be the hideous, yet overwhelmingly interesting SocialRadar, an app dedicated to stalkers and stalkees.
Only other SocialRadar accounts can view your profile, but the app relies heavily on integrating with as many other social networking profiles you have, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter in order to establish existing friendships or common interests you may have with complete strangers around you.
As stated by SocialRadar:
Or imagine knowing that the stranger who's profile you lurked on is just down the street.
Creepy.
Finding Anyone by Proximity
The app also relies on proximity, which you to set using a nifty little slider that reaches up to 100 miles, city, state, country, and even the world! Pick a radius and it will automatically update the number of People Around You, which are sorted into categories of Everyone, Friends, Friends of Friends, and Favorites. You can also find people based on connections, like Professional, Social, and Places.
Staying Private to Those Around You
An integral feature is the Privacy settings on the main page. There are four main viewing options: Public, Friends Only, Anonymous, and Invisible—I call the last two "creepy" and "creepier". To protect yourself from getting tracked down by weirdos, just disable the Share Exact Location feature.
Setting Up Your Profile
A lot of the information will be auto filled, depending on how much information you have on the social networking profiles that you gave it access to. You can also fill in some extra information in order to meet people with similar interests.
Determining People's Locations
SocialRadar only works with others who also have the app, and there are two ways of viewing people near you when trolling profiles: List and Map. Scroll through and view other SocialRadar users and maybe you'll notice that you and an actual friend are nearby while out drinking. If not made private, you can even map out directions to users before you meet up or abduct them.
I actually mapped out this random user, so he better watch out.
Saving Your iPhone's Battery Power
Since this application is constantly tracking your whereabouts, it's definitely draining your battery. Luckily, unlike other apps, the developers of SocialRadar thought of this. Open the settings and go into the Battery Manager preferences to adjust how frequently your location is updated.
The Verdict
In the right hands, this application can be useful, but like history has shown, not everyone will use it for its conventional purposes. I can picture Ted Bundy salivating over this app, so I'm leaning towards it being on the creepier side. Which way do you lean?
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