With Facebook Places your check-ins are displayed in friend's news feeds and, for the most part, to your entire group of friends. People are concerned about this, for obvious reasons, because of the link made to all the potential unsecured Facebook data.

Enter private location-based service Neer spawned from Qualcomm Services Labs (QSL).

Not to be outdone MessageParty, a YCombinator-funded startup, adds geolocation services to chat rooms. Let's just hope that no one creates a geo-aware Chatroulette!

SCVNGR and AT&T are working together to create in-store Rewards, based on a new SCVNGR feature that combines actions, location and coupons.

Mashable reports:

The stores testing the initiative will be decked out with SCVNGR signage promoting three AT&T rewards; players can opt to unlock each of the rewards by completing challenges and earning points via SCVNGR’s iPhone and Android apps.

SCVNGR CEO and Founder Seth Priebatsch hints that AT&T was drawn to SCVNGR because it could script challenges and offer rewards for behaviors, as opposed to giving away coupons.

In talking with other prospective and current retail partners, Priebatsch has found a 'totally unambiguous unsatisfication around couponing,' who see coupon apps as 'a race to the bottom.'

Have we come to a point where retailers are no longer willing to give away discounts for simply checking in to their stores? Or is this simply a case of bigger buy in (in the form of user action taken) means bigger rewards?

Another day another Facebook privacy concern. Facebook launched Places, their geolocation check-in feature. Mashable has a good beginner's guide with all the details, including how to use it to promote your business.

It seems to be the trend that there's a privacy concern with every new Facebook feature, and Places is no different. This time it's that friends can check you into Places without your consent, inviting others to rob you while you're away.

Luckily, there are some pretty simple steps to protect yourself from this option:

1. Go to privacy settings
2. Go to "customize"
3. Scroll to "things others share"
4. Disable "friends can check me into places."

Excuse me while I go change my privacy settings.

Enter The Hotlist, a way to automatically see what is going on through your connections on Facebook and Twitter. No check-in required. Now this I can sink my teeth into.

We've told you about gaming mechanics. We've told you about geolocation. We've even told you how some companies are starting to mix the two. All of that sets the stage for SCVNGR — a geolocation game app.

It's a pretty simple concept — think of the scavenger hunts of your youth, add a mobile device. In SCVNGR's own words, you play by:

1. Going places
2. Doing challenges
3. Earning points

The points can earn you online badges or real-world prizes. At this year's Comic-Con participants in the Dexter Game On SCVNGR hunt unlocked exclusive content from the new season of Dexter, were given access to a VIP "kill room" and won prizes and merchandise.

The International Computer Science Institute is about to release a publication entitled "Cybercasing the Joint: On the Privacy Implications of Geotagging." In a nutshell, it explains how criminals can use your geotagged text, photos and videos to plan a real-world attack. With the current internet privacy concerns and location-based services all the rage, this report could provide some useful insight.

Branded content, geolocation, gaming mechanics — I promise I'm not just stringing together social media buzzwords. Brightkite announced that they're adding gaming mechanics to their badges. Brighkite states:

Once you get to level 1, you’ll find out how to get to level 2, and so on. The idea is that its fun to be rewarded for what you do, and your friends can quickly see the things that interest you.

The biggest reason to introduce levels to our badges was so stores, bars, restaurants and brands have a way to reward you, their customers. We think a business should reward all their loyal customers, not just one person. Expect to see a range of branded badges that are both fun to earn and also give you real world rewards as you hit different levels.

Mashable reports that Brighkite is already partnering with Starbucks, the CW, Visa, Sharpie, Redbook, McDonald’s and several other brands.

Adding gaming mechanics may be the push that get's Brightkite on par with Foursquare and Gowalla.

Location-based apps have one big bump in the road to get over before they can expect the type of user activity that other social media platforms enjoy — privacy concerns. A recent suvey of more than 1,500 social network users who own geolocation-ready mobile devices revealed the following:

• 39% use geolocation on their mobile devices
• 55% of those that use geolocation tools are worried about their loss of privacy
• 45% are very concerned about letting potential burglars know when they’re away from home

The survey also found "a surprising number of users engaged in behaviors that could put themselves and their private information at risk."

LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, has teamed up with Gowalla to help build and engage their community. It will be interesting to see how many more non-profits leverage Gowalla and other check-in services.

By now we're all familiar with location-based social networks where we check-in and tell everyone where we are and what we're doing: There are articles on why we do it, Apple has a patent for one and Yahoo is buying existing location-based social networks. So no one should be surprised that some geolocation companies becoming are more specific and niche. 

With Foursquare swimming in funding could, and talk of it being too much too late, could this be another internet boom two thousand zero zero party's over, oops outta time?